Blair McKenzie believes Elgin City is the ideal place for him to develop after making his debut in the 2-0 Viaplay Cup defeat to Motherwell.
The 17-year-old defender joined the Black and Whites on-loan from Aberdeen on Friday and was pitched straight in to start against Premiership opposition at Borough Briggs on Saturday.
McKenzie is pleased to have joined Elgin and said: “I spoke to a few people that had been here before on loan like Evan Towler (who has had two loan spells with Elgin). He told me it’s a really good club.
“I came into training on Thursday and all the boys were great with me and I’m happy to be here.
“The gaffer’s been really good as well and I’m looking forward to the season.
“I want to play as many games as I can and hopefully develop in senior football and I’m looking forward to it.”
Against Motherwell, Elgin competed well for long spells in their Group G opener.
McKenzie added: “It was a good experience playing against top players, we knew it would be a tough game but I thought we did well.
“People might have expected it to be more than 2-0, but I thought we did well to stay in the game.
“We had chances at 1-0, the gaffer had one cleared off the line and if that goes in it’s a different game.
“I was happy with the performance overall. It’s all about getting ready for the league really, but of course it would be good if we could get a result.
“The group is quite tough but we’ve got a good group of boys and I fancy us to do well.”
New recruits impress boss
As well as McKenzie on-loan Aberdeen striker Liam Harvey and on-loan Ross County midfielder Ryan MacLeman also started for City.
Elgin player-manager Ross Draper was impressed with their displays.
He said: “I thought they were really good. I enjoyed playing next to Blair, he’s comfortable on the ball, aggressive, calm and collected.
“He’s a left-sided centre-half as well, which is rare, and he was really good to play with.
“All three of them haven’t been in long and to get used to all the boys is a tough task for them.
“Ryan was good changing position second half and playing as a wing-back.
“We changed at half-time because Liam was a bit starved of possession against three centre-halves.
“When we had Dylan Lawrence up beside him second half it helped and Liam worked his socks off.
“When he gets that little bit of support more opportunities and goals will come for him.
“It’s a good workout for us against very good opposition and there’s a lot of positives to take from it.”
Well do enough
In the opening exchanges Jonathan Obika twice threated for Motherwell and Russell Dingwall dragged an angled shot wide for the hosts.
The Steelmen broke the deadlock on 24 minutes in stunning fashion with 16-year-old Lennon Miller rifling a shot into the bottom left corner from 25 yards.
Elgin changed to a 3-5-2 formation in the second period and had some joy.
Harvey’s shot from the right side of the box was turned behind by goalkeeper Liam Kelly.
From the resultant corner Dingwall’s delivery was met by the header of Draper, but Blair Spittal was perfectly placed to clear off the line.
Elgin were emboldened by that spell and Motherwell realised the game wasn’t over, but with quarter of an hour left they wrapped up victory.
Spittal’s inswinging corner from the left was knocked down by Bevis Mugabi and Obika forced the ball in from close range.
Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell said: “If I’m being ultra-critical I felt we got into enough good areas and created enough good chances to score a few more goals.”
