Peterhead manager Jim McInally has praised goalkeeper Lenny Wilson for turning his career at the club around.
The stopper has agreed to remain with the Blue Toon next season after making six appearances this term.
The 2020-21 campaign started badly for Wilson as he was left out of the team at the start of season in favour of Josh Rae.
McInally had planned to give both custodians a chance, but was unhappy with Wilson’s attitude, which led to him spending the first half of the campaign on the bench – aside from two outings in the League Cup.
However, the Balmoor boss has been pleased with the way the 24-year-old has responded and gave him a chance in four of the last five matches, where he performed well.
McInally said: “Lenny started off badly with his attitude more than anything else.
“He didn’t give us a chance to identify the No1 goalkeeper, he actually made it easy for me to choose.
“Whereas, he should have trusted the process at the time, where we were going to have a look at them both in games.
“But he kind of spat the dummy out and made it easy and at one point he was thinking about going to the Highland League.
“But we had a really good chat and I said to Lenny he would get his chance if he knuckled down and showed the right attitude.
“And that’s exactly what he did. He started travelling to do extra training and he was doing stuff that wasn’t asked of him.
“You could see in training that he was training brilliantly and he deserved his chance, he got it and he took it to such an extent that- come the end of the season – he would have been No1.
“He did well in the games he played, not just in terms of saves he made, Lenny excelled in the basics of sweeping behind the defence and being well-positioned.
“He needs to retain the same attitude when we come back and he needs to keep improving and he needs to listen.”
Butter’s influence has helped
McInally believes the influence of goalkeeping coach Jim Butter has also helped both Wilson and Rae this season.
He added: “Jim is good because he keeps in contact with the goalkeepers all the time.
“Both Lenny and Josh are still young goalkeepers and I think Jim keeping in touch with them and having conversations about letting things happen has been important.
“If Lenny had let things happen at the start of the season, he would have given himself an opportunity to play more.
“But Jim has given them extra training and I think Lenny has seen the process working and he got his chance, so you’ve just got to believe that when we do things we do it as fairly as we can.
“I think he felt at the start of the season that he’d been treated unfairly, which wasn’t the case.
“He made it easy for me and he knows that, but come the end of the season he had thrown down a challenge to Josh and it was a challenge he was winning.”
