Elgin City skipper Darryl McHardy credits team-mate Brian Cameron as a source of local inspiration after the midfielder clocked up his 400th Black and Whites appearance.
Cameron, who made his debut as a 16-year-old against Stenhousemuir in 2008, reached the milestone when he played in last weekend’s 3-1 Scottish Cup defeat to Alloa Athletic.
Defender McHardy, who is four years younger than Cameron and also hails from Elgin, is determined to follow in the 28-year-old’s footsteps by racking up the outings for his hometown club.
McHardy said: “Brian is one of my best friends outwith football as well, so I was buzzing for him to get 400 appearances. I can imagine it being another 400 as well, as he’s as fit and loyal as they come.
“He has his testimonial race night this weekend, and he deserves everything he gets from Elgin for what he has done for the club.
“He’s a great senior player for the young boys to look up to for how he has done it.
“We became became really close when I was starting to train with the first team. I was only 16, but he’s a few years older.
“I always looked up to him as at that stage he was in the first team week-in, week-out.
“I’m at 209 appearances now – I’m aiming to make it 500 one day. You want to play for your local club, and make as many appearances as you can possibly get.”
McHardy is pushing to get back into manager Gavin Price’s starting line-up for today’s League 2 match at home to Stirling Albion, having recently returned from a dislocated shoulder.
He added: “The past few weeks I haven’t made it back into the starting 11. I just have to wait to get my turn, when the boys are doing so well it’s hard to change a winning team.”
Price sees today’s match against the seventh-placed Binos as the start of a crucial week for the Moray outfit, who travel to Stenhousemuir on Tuesday before facing Cowdenbeath away next Saturday.
Price, who has Rabin Omar, Matthew Aitken, Daniel MacKay, Daniel Hoban back in contention, said: “It’s a massive seven days for us. If we want to have an exciting season that supporters want to get behind, this is an important week for us to prove we are going to be that team challenging for the top four.
“The league is all our focus now. We were in good form before the two cup games, we took 10 points from four games and had some good performances in them, particularly at home.
“We have got to try and carry that on and do that against a Stirling Albion team that will be difficult. They don’t lose a lot of goals – they have got the best defensive record in the league.
“They are going to be a stubborn team to break down, so we have got to be patient and mindful of that.
“I think Stirling will be challenging for the play-offs – hopefully alongside ourselves.
“It’s a big game for us, and a chance to put a bit of daylight between us and them.
“We’ve got to make sure we get all aspects of our game right to achieve that.”