Winning start to Deveronvale's pre-season as assistant manager Ritchie Davidson gains encouragement from young players coming through Princess Royal Park ranks
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DEVERONVALE’S young guns impressed assistant boss Ritchie Davidson as the Banff club got their pre-season programme off to a winning start on Saturday.
A 4-2 victory over junior neighbours Islavale was scope for some encouragement, though Davidson said the score was not important.
“In pre-season you are not overly-concerned about results,” he said. “You want to win the game but it was more about the performance and the work-out.
“We had over 20 boys and strong squad numbers with still a few to return but it was all about boys getting minutes on the park.
We have only been back for two weeks which, over the piece looks like we took this game a bit too early. But after a couple of weeks of hard graft, the guys who have been there every week are probably deserving of the game.
“We told them the main focus was to be match ready and fit for the 29th and the start of the league season.”
Goals by captain Harry Noble, two from striker Dane Ballard and one from youth prospect Jack Mitchell saw Vale to victory.
“Young Jack has been showing up in training really well,” Davidson said. “He was the under-18s development player of the year last year and he was invited to pre-season.
“He got the second half and managed to get on the end of a cross and score, which was good to see.
“It’s encouraging that local boys are coming through. You need this. We are at a stage as a club where we cannot afford to spend a fortune on senior pros so we need to rely on the conveyor belt coming through and the guys’ attitudes being first class when they come into the first team dressing room.
“It’s about trying to do what Jack did by stamping their authority in there right away.”
Vale signed former Elgin City loanee Jamie Tinnock on a permanent deal as well as bringing in teenagers Jamie MacLellan from Fraserburgh and Matty Petermann from Inverurie Locos, the latter a player who worked with Davidson at Harlaw Park.
“Matty is a player who I know very well. He hit the ground running by scoring on his debut for Locos but last year he went on loan at Hermes and things didn’t quite work out.
“Locos took him back in and he got the odd game but they were very honest in saying that the direction they were going in, he would be starved of game time over the next season or so and it made sense for us to make an approach and try to get him in because I really do believe he can terrorise a lot of defenders with his pace and his directness.
“We’ve signed young, promising guys that have had a little taste of Highland League football. They have been at bigger clubs and maybe their game time has been a little bit starved. We can offer them the opportunity and that is what we have said to all three of them.
“Jamie MacLellan has had three years of junior football and is ready to kick on now. He maybe did’;t get quite that opportunity at Fraserburgh to show what he can do but we have taken these guys in and we feel they can make a difference for us.
We played him at centre back (against Islavale) and he did OK then we pushed him into midfield.
“It’s good to have the flexibility that these young lads give you by trying different positions. We don’t want to pigeonhole them into one position just now.”
