Improvement at Clachnacuddin as they look to continue the journey upwards
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Clachnacuddin chairman Alex Chisholm is pleased with the progress the club has made this season – but says their journey is not over yet.
In recent seasons the Lilywhites have been struggling close to the foot of the Highland League table.
This year, though, Clach have never really troubled the bottom three, going on an impressive run early in the season that saw them just miss out on a top half finish as they ended the campaign in 11th place.
It has been a remarkable turnaround for the 2021/22 campaign, and while the likes of striker James Anderson has grabbed his fair share of headlines Chisholm credits much of the progress made to manager Jordan Macdonald.
"From where we were – we obviously had Covid issues and everything else – Jordan has come in and from day one he knew what he wanted to do," Chisholm explained.
"He's ambitious for the club, he made that clear to us and we're delighted that it's working really well for us.
"Football has ups and downs, we know that, but we've got the basic model with our youth and our under-20s, and we wanted guys to come through and they have.
"They've done really well, and they're setting their own standards now. We're just looking for them to push on.
"We've had interest from other clubs in our players – of course you will when someone like James Anderson has scored 20-plus goals. From what James went through last summer with his own health, to come back and do that is fantastic.
"It's a team thing though. We're pushing in the right direction, but we're not done yet. The progress that we've made, where we are in the league – you can see it with our points tally – and the style of football we're trying to play, it will come."
It certainly seems to be an exciting time at Grant Street Park, who have announced plans for their under-20 side to enter the North Caledonian League next season too.
Across all areas of the club, then, there is reason to be optimistic for how the next few years will pan out, and Chisholm says they have always been planning for long term success over short term goals.
"We knew this was going to be two or three years," he reasoned.
"We had good discussions with Jordan and all of the coaching team about what their thoughts were on the footballing side for us as a club.
"We thought we would invest in these kids, because that's what we believe is the right thing to do.
"You have to get a foundation there, and then you keep that going. I think the North Caley is a massive step that will help these guys come on, so over the next two or three years we are looking for these guys to step up to the first team and not look out of place, stick together and push the club on.
"It all generates good interest for the club – all parts of the club. These guys, the women's squad, it's all part of the same thing, at the end of the day we're all under one badge at this football club."
