Deveronvale captain Jamie Maclellan fails to turn up for Banff club’s Highland League clash with Fraserburgh but manager Garry Wood is open to negotiation on a change of heart from his defender
Has Deveronvale’s captain kicked his last ball for the club after failing to show for their last match?
Jamie Maclellan has told the Banff club he’s finished with them, and didn’t show for Friday night’s 3-1 home defeat against Fraserburgh.
Vale signed the 20-year-old defensive midfielder from Fraserburgh, who are understood to be keen to bring him back to Bellslea Park.
Deveronvale player boss Garry Wood said Maclellan recently signed a contract extension to keep him at Princess Royal Park for the next three-and-a-half years.
But another Highland League club made an enquiry about signing the player, and after learning about the interest in him, Maclellan has elected to stay away from Vale.
Wood says he wants to resolve the situation and would welcome the player back with open arms if he decided to return to the fold.
“We've had an enquiry from a club regarding him,” said Wood. “We were open and honest and spoke to him about it.
“We emphasised that he was on a long-term deal that he just signed last year from us. He's a key part of our plans for being the captain and he was fine with that.
“But I think deep down he wants to move to the club, which is fair enough. He was told that as soon as there's an acceptable bid then we'll deal with it from there, and he would give his all for the club until such time.
“But obviously last week that changed and he advised the chairman that he wouldn't be coming back. So we just need to see how that plays out.”
Vale knew when they arrived at their ground on Friday that it would be unlikely that their captain would be there.
“He never came to train on Wednesday, so we had an idea from that and obviously the conversation with the chairman to say that he wasn't going to be coming back.
“We want a resolution for all parties, to be honest, that suits everyone. That's out of our hands at the moment until such time there's an acceptable bid or Jamie changes his decision from what he wants to do at the moment.
“You see it happen in football all the time and I'll never say no to a U-turn, but we'll just need to wait and see what happens.
“There's conversations that need to be had before we get to that point, but up until then we just carry on with the squad that we've got just now.
“Our squad's big enough to cope without one player, so we'll just need to get on with it with what we've got.”
Vale have brought midfielder Stewart Gray from a loan spell at Inverurie Locos to cover in Maclellan’s position.
Gray was part of the home squad that went down to Broch, despite taking the lead through Dem Yunus’ fourth minute strike.
The visitors came back well with Will Sim levelling just before half time, and second half efforts by Sean Butcher and Callan Gray turned the contest on its head.
Vale have also sold forward Adam Reid to Dyce. The player was signed last summer.
The Banffshire side will need to erase the memory of their heaviest defeat this season if they are to maintain their interest in the Highland League Cup on Friday night.
Vale pay a second visit this season to Spain Park to take on Banks o’ Dee, who beat them 5-0 in the league at the end of August.
“We were well beaten that day,” Wood added. “I think since that game, Banks o’ Dee have pretty much won every single game, just about.
“So we're under no illusions. It's another difficult task for us and we'll need to do our best to get through to the next round.
“Last season, the League Cup was a big one for us. We obviously got to the semi-final and pushed Brora really, really close to the semi-final, so it's a challenge and we'll see where it takes us.”
Wood won’t have a full squad to choose from - apart from the likely absence of Maclellan.
“We've got a few injuries at the moment. On Friday there was two or three that actually played that probably shouldn't have played.”