Elgin City defender Lyall Booth spent ten years on the books of Aberdeen and is relishing the Scottish Cup chance to play against former team-mates like Jack McKenzie and Jack Milne
Elgin City defender Lyall Booth can’t wait to face up to an Aberdeen side he served for a decade in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.
The Newburgh-based 21-year-old joined the Dons at the age of eight, came through the youth ranks with current Pittodrie stars and received a senior contract at 16, before being released two years later.
Now at City, via a spell in the Highland League with Huntly, the left back is helping the Black and Whites to have what promises to be one of their best seasons yet.
Booth can’t wait to take to the Borough Briggs pitch in January and face up to the club he still supports.
“I was a Dons supporter growing up and through my youth,” he said. “I can’t go to games any more when I'm playing on Saturdays.
“But it will be really good to play against past team-mates, and a team I was strongly involved with most of my life.
“Ten years is a long time. I spent almost all of my youth days at the club before I left at 18.
“It will be brilliant to play against my old team, especially in Elgin because I’m sure it will be a sell-out. Let’s hope it’s on TV as well.”
Booth came through the ranks with fellow full-back Jack McKenzie, who captained the Dons’ development team before breaking into the first team, where he is now a regular.
Jack Milne is another product of the Dons’ youth development who Booth played with, and who has played several times under new manager Jimmy Thelin for an Aberdeen team having their best season in years.
Another former Aberdeen team-mate is Elgin lad Tom Ritchie, a goalkeeper who has had loan spells at Buckie Thistle and Bonnyrigg Rose but is back at Pittodrie and was on the bench for Tuesday night’s match against Celtic.
“I hear from them now and again, not on a regular basis. We’ve got each other on social media and I like to see how they’re getting on.
“It will be good to play against them rather than with them.”
While Booth will be fully focused on trying to help City stay top of League 2 over the coming weeks, he can be forgiven for having one eye on what promises to be the biggest match of his life.
“This will definitely be the hardest game of my career so far.
“We played Hibs at the start of the season but it was a brand new team and it was all about gelling, so hopefully we can do better.
“We lost 5-0 but it was a great experience to play against a Premiership side. Martin Boyle was a real handful to play against, he’s a very quick player.
“They are full-time and we are full-time so there’s always going to be a difference in style and fitness but it is a one-off game and you never know what’s going to happen.
Many of the City team, and perhaps the club’s board of directors, would have preferred for the match to have been drawn at Pittodrie for reasons of finance and prestige.
Even with his ten years of experience at the club, Booth barely got an opportunity to play in their first team stadium.
“I think I only played at Pittodrie once against Hearts in a youth match,” he recalled. “Most of our games were at Cove for the reserves, and when I was there that was when Cormack Park was getting built.
“My first year we were training at the barracks in Balgownie and in the second year we moved out to Cormack.
Booth is loving life at Elgin and is the only player to have started every match for the team in what has been a successful campaign to date.
“There was talk of relegation when I first joined the club and now we are top of the league and doing really well, so long may that continue.
“We’ve done well in the cup but football can go either way. It was one kick away from Clyde going through instead of us in the second round, but it was great that we won the tie.
“Then we did really well against Kelty. On the day, to a man we were brilliant to be honest.”
Next up is a top-of-the-table clash at East Fife in League 2 on Saturday.
“We’ve got a really tough one coming up this weekend, and there’s a few tough fixtures throughout December. It’s a test for us to try and show that we deserve to be top of the league and that we can stay there.
“It will be tough until the Aberdeen game so we will look to keep it at the back of our minds until then, and it will be a massive occasion to look forward to in January.”
