I used to play in goal you know, I was keeper. I wasn’t any good, but I had a great jersey and I dived about a lot.
I did however have a very good defence in front of me. David Ross at centre half made me look good. The point of this reminiscence is that as a keeper I like to think you get to know the importance of having a good defence in front of you. At Station Park we have a three towers of defending.
In any defence you need a lynchpin, you need somebody to hold it together, to lead it. With us that is Big Mo, El Capitane, hes anchored the defence for us for the past three years and is a Rolls Royce of a centre half.
He will win anything in the air, if he goes in for a tackle he will win it and he pings a ball the length of the park with the accuracy of a Phil Taylor dart in the bullseye.
Hes lost a bit of pace and turns like the QE2…. but he’s a tank of a defender, the sort you want in the heart of your team..
Alongside Big Mo is Webby. A bone fide international player! He was capped for Northern Ireland dontcha know.
Stats show Webby wins everything in the air… but this season he’s added goals! The man went the whole of last season without scoring, this season hes got five by mid-November. Nairn have a thing about goalscoring Irishmen.
Right Back is Martin MacDonald, everyone calls him Bobo, hes a Nairn legend, solid, reliable and notches the occasional goal. He also does this weird spinny jumpy thing when he scores. We kinda like it.
Three at the back to hold back the rest of the Highland League. Personally I would like to see some youth being introduced.
The Three Amigos have done Nairn proud but they ain’t the youngest. Perhaps Paul MacLeod is best placed to take one of the spots in the seasons to come…..or Vincent Kompany, if he’s available.
When Andy Neill left we lost a lot of `legs` from the back which we could do with replacing. There’s a school of opinion that change is required in the Nairn defence, the stalwarts who have served us so well and so long are at the stage of passing the torch.
It will be of interest to see who is next to hold the line for the Wee County.