Mark Reynolds reckons the work-life balance has paid dividends for him after joining for Cove Rangers’ League One title success.
Former Aberdeen and Dundee United defender Reynolds joined Cove in January, with a view to helping them finish the job in League One.
He also viewed it as the perfect time to start his transition into full-time football, after getting a degree in engineering.
Reynolds has been a regular at Cove in the second half of the season and, two years after lifting the Championship trophy with United, he will be back in the league again with the Aberdeen side.
“I’ve never tried to hide the fact that Cove was a team I kept an eye on,” said Reynolds. “My family is in Aberdeen – it’s home for them.
“It’s great to come back and play for a local team. It was always plan A for me – I got my degree and playing football here. I’m working in engineering and loving it.
“In life, when you put plans into place, sometimes they don’t go the right way or fall how you’d want them to go.
“But I’ve been lucky in that everything I’ve wanted to do, I’m doing right now.
“You get it in full-time football; if your family’s unhappy, if your kids or wife are not happy, you start to see it on the pitch.
“We’re happy up here and we all love it up here. That goes a long way. A lot of the boys are in that situation, where they’ve got good jobs and are doing this because they love it.
“They’re not under the illusion that they need to be doing this or need to be full-time footballers. It’s a great group of boys, we fight and scrap for each other and get our rewards at the end.”
‘We won’t be going into games with any fear’
While the level of pressure will change for Cove next season stepping up a level, Reynolds does not believe they need to adjust much.
“This season was huge pressure because we were the favourites as a part-time team,” he added. “I came in January, but they’ve led from the start.
“They’ve managed to deal with the pressure. We go into next season where we won’t be favourite every week. Teams will come and expect to beat us, but we’ve got a good record at home.
“We won’t be going into games with any fear. Since I’ve come here, the manager wants us to put our style of football into every game and I’m sure that won’t change.”