Nairn County’s Andrew Greig and Andrew Macrae of Brora Rangers are delighted to be back in action after spells stuck on the sidelines.
The pair will be up against each other tomorrow night when the Wee County host the Cattachs at Station Park in the Breedon Highland League.
Winger Greig, who scored in Nairn’s weekend win against Turriff United, has returned this term after coming back from a torn meniscus in his knee sustained in March 2023.
The 31-year-old former Brora player admits he did consider retirement following his injury, but is pleased to be back in the fray.
Greig said: “My recovery went as well as it could have and I was quite happy with that.
“I’ve been out a long time and it’s been good to be back.
“I did think about retiring – after getting injured I was a bit disheartened.
“But I didn’t want to go out because of injury, I wanted to go out on my own terms.
“Once you have a bit of time away from it you realise what you are missing so that made me want to come back.
“Nairn’s a really good club with a lot of good people and I enjoy playing for Nairn.”
Macrae moving forward again
Meanwhile, striker Macrae spent the second half of last season frozen out of the Brora side.
But after potential moves elsewhere didn’t materialise, the 26-year-old has returned to the Dudgeon Park fold this term under manager Steven Mackay.
Macrae added: “It’s good being back involved, not playing for a few months made me miss it.
“You see some people getting injuries, and touch wood I’ve never had a serious injury, but it must be very hard for people who get them and can’t play football for a long period.
“When I wasn’t involved, I felt like I had a taste of that.
“But now I feel I’m back to where I was and I just need to get the confidence up and get back scoring goals.
“When I look back at last season, I look at myself and there are things I could have handled differently.
“There were things I jumped at which I maybe didn’t need to and I maybe should have been more patient.
“But it’s all in the past now and we’re moving forwards. I’m back enjoying my football and I want keep scoring goals for Brora.”
Brora look to bounce back
Brora suffered their first defeat of the season on Saturday, losing 3-2 at home to Keith, with Macrae eager to show that was a blip.
He said: “We want to show it was a freak result.
“Credit to Keith, they took their chances when they came along and did well.
“We were poor, we conceded three goals and we didn’t take chances we had in the first half.
“We’re not going to panic – you have to take the rough with the smooth.
“We’re still raging about the result, but we need to try to move on and get back to winning ways.”
Greig is hoping Nairn can build on Saturday’s 2-0 win at Turriff, which was their second triumph in six league outings.
He added: “For ourselves we want to try to go on a run and get some momentum.
“It takes time because we’ve got a lot of new players and everyone needs to gel.”