Visitors to the Morayshire city of Elgin would definitely be impressed by the fine façade to the local football side’s Main Stand on Borough Briggs and they would be even more impressed to walk through the corridors of the club that was formed in 1893 and moved to their current location in 1921.
The corridors under the near 500 seater stand depict, amongst many other successes, 14 Highland League Championship wins, with 10 titles being picked up between season 1952/53 and season 1969/70 and the last Championship success coming in season 1989/90.
Ten years ago, the club was elected to become a member of The Scottish Football League and it would be fair to say that the local picture framers have not been too busy since. The new IRN-BRU SFL Championship begins this weekend with Elgin having a home fixture against Arbroath bringing new hope that great achievement can again be captured for posterity.
The Third Division club in simple terms is a sleeping giant and Manager Ross Jack is out to waken Borough Briggs up and improve on a 10 year record that has produced four ninth placed finishes and two foot of the table endings with an all time high seen in season 2005/06 with a fifth place finish.
Jack, appointed to his position just over a year and a half ago, said, “We have been in the SFL for 10 years now and our eleventh is a huge season for Elgin City Football Club. We will really be looking to establish ourselves further up the League table as we have been at the wrong end for too long now and things have got to change.”
The change will come not through an influx of new players but from Jack developing from within as he explained. “We do not a great deal of money to spend to bring in high profile signings so we have to work hard with our youth players.”
The fruits of that labour are beginning to be seen with Jack advising, “We had six players from our Under-19 side in the first team at the tail end of last season. Young players can now be developed here at Borough Briggs whereas before, their parents would have to drive for a couple of hours three or four times a week to get the quality of coaching that the guys can now get from a young age here.
“Players can now stay here and play in our youth teams which are competing at a decent level in the SFL.”
Jack is asking the local football fans to back his side in their quest for a successful season saying, “We need the crowds to come and back these youngsters and we need to keep them coming back. A good start is essential and if we can do that, we can have Elgin buzzing again. We can start looking to get four figure crowds through the door again.”
The Black and Whites’ squad has been overhauled during the close season with the promotion of youngsters from the youth set-up, that Jack also looks after, and the injection of experience of the much travelled 38-year-old Barry Wilson, who is going to play and assist Jack with coaching duties.
Elgin completes a journey around Highland clubs for Wilson who has also played for Ross County, Inverness Caledonian Thistle and the slightly further east Peterhead where he plyed his trade for a short spell last season.
Jack said, “It is all about working with what is at your disposal and we are very confident about the season ahead. Our squad has changed, we had seven players that left in May at the end of their contracts. A couple of them have come back in, worked hard and have been re-signed. We have added Barry, brought Ross O’Donoghue back and also given Paul Millar and some of the younger boys a chance during pre-season.”
Millar scored the winner against Ayr United at the weekend in Elgin’s 3-2 Co-operative Insurance Cup First Round win and at six foot eight inches tall, the Fireman at nearby RAF Kinross will give opposing defences something to worry about. Millar found the net at the weekend with a finely placed shot and not with the expected headed goal.
Jack added, “That goal will do wonders for his confidence and there is more to come from Paul.”
Another striker that Jack is looking for big things from is youngster Brian Cameron with Jack saying, “Brian is one to look out for. There was interest in him during the summer but he has stayed here. He is maturing into a strong striker and one to look out for and I expect him to be grabbing a few goals.”
Elgin opened their season with a 2-1 defeat to Scottish Cup Finalists Ross County in the First Round of The ALBA Challenge Cup in a game full of passion with Jack saying, “It was great to open the season against Ross County in a game that caught everyone’s imagination up here. I played at Ross County as a 14-year-old and five boys in our squad also played there so there was a lot of interest.
“I thought we did really well and despite getting beat we took confidence from that game.”
Jack’s youthful experience at County as a teenager saw him win a move to Everton, although in the days before instant information was available via the internet, he was not quite sure where the club he was joining were based.
Jack joked, “They sent me train tickets to Liverpool and at 14-years-old, I was wondering why they sent me tickets for Liverpool when I was going to be joining Everton!”
After the County game, “Elgin hosted Rangers in a friendly last Tuesday which saw a crowd of over 700 fans turn up with the Borough Briggs boss saying, “The crowd was great and the game had a bit of atmosphere and the boys responded well although we lost 3-2 to a side containing several players with first team experience at Ibrox including Andrew Little, who is a Northern Ireland internationalist.”
“To follow that up with a win over Ayr United was great and now we are waiting to see who we get in the Second Round draw on Friday.”
Having just completed 18 months in his job, Jack is confident that the foundations are now in place for a push on the top half of the table.
He said, “This is my second pre-season and the building blocks for the club to progress are in place now. We have strong roots established from the youth set-up onwards and now it is time to build on the blocks we put in place.”
“The Community Programmes are well established and varied. There are the kids coaching courses called ‘Elite Feet’ and ‘Train Like The Pros’.
“We work with the community to run a programme for boys and girls aged between 8 and 14 with Learning Disabilities or Disabilities. These courses are important as we are a club that depends on our community.”
The local public are responding with Jack commenting, “Last summer there were very few Elgin tops amongst the kids. When we ran the October School week course, there was a couple. However, this summer there was a right good sprinkling in amongst Aberdeen, Celtic and Rangers tops.”
Jack was asked who would be the main challengers on Elgin’s quest for a top half finish and it sounds like this season’s Third Division could be an intriguing battle.
He advised, “I reckon Queen’s Park will be there or thereabouts. I have a lot of time for Gardner Speirs and what he has done there. Annan have recruited well as have Clyde. Arbroath have just been relegated but they will be strong so it will be a tough division when you consider East Stirling came third and Albion Rovers fifth last season.
“It will be a tight, tight Championship and Elgin City will be looking to be right up there with the challengers.”
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