October 9th 2026
I said yesterday that Nairn County is in my blood and it is certainly an honour for me to have been named as the new Manager of the club.
The club has been a huge part of my life from the very beginning. I grew up in William Street and played football in the playground at Millbank Primary, down at the Riverside and sometimes may even have climbed the wall for a kickabout at Station Park from time-to-time as well!
I came through the youth system here and was coached by very dedicated coaches who gave up their own time to take the teams, people like Martin Main, Alan MacDonald, Robbie Hannah, Andrew ‘Hovis’ Fraser, Jamie Begg, Mike Hendry, Armando Monteiro, Jim Walker and Martin Bell – who was the biggest influence on my career. I really loved my time as a youth player at Nairn County and I am looking forward to working with the present day youth coaches to make sure we provide the best opportunities for our own youngsters to follow the pathway to the First Team.
I took so much out of my time here as a player and was always looking to learn from coaches and teammates from my debut in 2004 right up to my final game at the end of last season. Throughout my career here and at the other clubs I played for, I played under a lot of great coaches and I have learned something different from them all. I made my breakthrough at Nairn County under Les Fridge when Peter Mackintosh was Chairman and Peter and Michael Mackintosh were involved behind the scenes too – they all were an integral part of my development and I had a particularly good relationship with the late Peter and his wife, Val.
When I made the decision to retire at the end of the season, becoming the Manager of the club was always something I felt I wanted to do one day. When the opportunity came along, I will admit that it came earlier than I had anticipated. I know it is going to be a huge challenge for me but after I had a couple of discussions with the Director of Football, Graeme Macleod and then sat down with him and the Chairman, Kevin Reid and the Vice Chairman, Brodie Stewart, the more I thought about it, the more it felt right and I thought it was too good to turn down.
We already have a really good squad of players here, which is a great platform for us to start working from. I want to help the players improve individually and as a team and I am really looking forward to the start of pre-season training in June where the preparations for next season will begin to take shape. Before then, I will be working on completing my coaching team and we will have news on that soon.
I have been a part of a lot of successes here as a player and I can honestly say that those times have only come about when everyone is pulling in the same direction – the management, the players, the committee and the fans. I want the fans to look forward to coming to watch us on a match day and turn out in good numbers both at Station Park and when we are away as well. It really makes a big difference to players in a game when they have a big support behind them, so I would ask the fans to give the players as much positive backing as they can.
I am really excited to start this next chapter with the club and the Chairman is looking into setting up a fans forum soon too, which I am also looking forward to attending.
WAYNE MACKINTOSH
Manager
Nairn County Football Club
