Nairn County confirm duo are leaving the club
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Nairn County are set to lose Tom MacLennan and Cohen Ramsay – with the duo bound for another Highland League club for next season.
The Wee County had gone through a spell of trying to tie down as many players as possible for the 2022/23 campaign earlier this year, but MacLennan and Ramsay have elected to leave Station Park and try their hands elsewhere.
Ramsay played no part in Nairn’s 5-3 home win over Turriff United to wrap up the Highland League season, with Ronnie Sharp’s mean securing eighth place in the table as a result, with youngster Nathan Grant given an opportunity to impress in defence instead.
For Sharp, the focus now turns to securing replacements for the departing pair.
“We have two who have agreed to join another Highland League club,” he said.
“We’ll be losing Tom Maclennan and Cohen Ramsay, they’re joining another Highland League Club.
“Cohen has been a regular for the last five or six years, ever since he came in when he was 17.
“Tom has been a regular too, but we’re losing them.
“We lost Max Ewan too during the season, so it’s about replacing those players now. That’s the key.”
How Sharp will go about filing those gaps in his squad remains to be seen, with the manager having options.
The transfer market presents one option, as does promoting prospects from the reserve team from within.
That was why Grant was given an opportunity to stake his claim after turning out for Nairn’s North Caledonian League outfit, as Sharp is keen to give youngsters the chance to impress where possible.
“We would love for it to be a bit of both,” he said.
“We played Nathan Grant on Saturday to see how he would stand up, but we will probably need to find centre-halves – one, maybe two.
“That’s what we will be looking for, but it’s hard to find players. We’ll have to see what guys are available and what we can attract to the club.
“We are actively looking for replacements for these players.
“It was just decided recently that Cohen was leaving, while we’ve known about Tom going for a few weeks.
“As for the rest of the squad, I think they’re all tied down at the moment which is good for us, but we need to find a couple of replacements.”
Sharp will be able to dedicate his full focus to squad building for next season after rounding off the season in style.
Turriff threatened to extend Nairn’s poor home form at first, opening the scoring from the penalty spot, before Conor Gethins responded in kind.
Ciaran Young gave Nairn the lead before half-time before Andrew Greig added a third and Jon Treasurer tapped in a fourth.
Turriff reduced the deficit to a single goal, though, before Young claimed his second to seal the three points.
