Huntly Football Club return to pre-season training with manager Colin Charlesworth thrilled to bring in four new signings so far
Four new signings joined the squad for the start of pre-season training.
Huntly got their preparations for the 2025-26 campaign under way on Saturday, with manager Colin Charlesworth excited by what lies in store for his squad.
The Black and Golds recruited top junior talents Alex Matczak from Lossiemouth United and Callum Youngson from Culter, as well Brechin City pair Lenny Wilson and Scott Logan.
Boss Charlesworth wouldn’t rule out more transfer business being done before the start of the season, but was pleased with the opening session.
He said the attitude of semi-professional footballers has changed over the years and all of his player pool came back from their summer break in good condition.
“The league's changed over the course of time, and the days when you go into the social club after games and boys are drinking pints are gone,” he said. “It's all protein shakes and recovery shakes and that now.
“The boys have got a good handle on their fitness and they never come back out of shape, really. They tend to come back fit, ready to get extra fit for pre-season.
“They put in a lot of hard work, a lot of hard yards, but the first one's always the toughest. It's that mental block when you turn up, you know what's coming, but you've got to put it in anyway.
“A couple more sessions like that and then we'll get them integrated with the footballs as well a lot more.”
Charlesworth admitted he is excited to see how his new signings integrate into the current squad.
The signing of former Elgin City youngster Matczak almost got forgotten when he was secured on a pre-contract agreement from North Junior Championship winners Lossie United earlier this year.
“Alex will get the same crack as everybody else. He's not coming in to be a squad filler. He's coming in because he's been at the top of his game for about three seasons now with Lossie United and proved that he's ready for the step-up.
“So, it's an important pre-season for him to come in and integrate himself into the group and hit the ground running in pre-season.
“If he's flying in pre-season, he'll be on a team sheet come day one.”
The manager pointed out that over the past 18 months, Huntly parted company with top level players like Lyall Booth, Robbie Foster, Michael Dangana and Andy Hunter and found it difficult at first to find replacements of a similar quality.
“We lost a lot of real good, strong high-end league players. And then we were kind of scrambling a wee bit with getting bodies in.
“We took it to Sam (Robertson), who had a cracking season for us and was a real shrewd bit of business.
“But then the other signers you bring in, like Jamie Michie, who ends up doing his cruciate in pre-season. You never really got a full hit at him.
“Adam Morris was trying to get back up to speed from day one because of his leg break a season before. And then Fraser Hobday gets a career-ending injury during pre-season. So, anything that could have gone against us last summer did.
“We knew we had to go and do something a bit different this year. And we set our stall high.
“We sold the lads a project and they really bought into it. And they're really excited to get going.
“They've all got a winning mentality. They've all won their respective leagues or they've got that demand of playing at the top end of their leagues every single week and knowing that the opposition they're playing against are treating it as a cup final against them.
“And they still have to go and win. That's a mentality switch that we're going to be getting into our lads this year.
“We do have it in the changing room. I think now we've got it over the whole 20-22 man squad, whatever we're working with this season.”
Adam Morris has left the club after moving back to his native Liverpool area.
