Captain Jamie Bain is determined to help Brechin City grasp their chance to return to the SPFL.
The Breedon Highland League champions tackle Lowland League counterparts Spartans at Ainslie Park today in the first leg of the pyramid play-off semi-final.
Defender Bain had spent his whole career in the SPFL prior to signing for Brechin in the summer of 2021.
After clinching the Highland League title in dramatic fashion against Buckie last weekend the 31-year-old would like to return to a higher level.
Bain said: “It’s my goal to try to get back to the SPFL and I know it’s the goal of everyone at the club from the players to the staff and the board.
“I try to use my experience, I’ve made something like 426 appearances and I try to help the younger boys.
“I said to some of them last Saturday ‘enjoy this moment because it might never happen again.’
“You don’t know what’s round the corner and going into these games I’ll be saying ‘go and give everything because the market is even bigger and you don’t know where your career could go if you get into League Two.’
“Somebody like Grady McGrath (who has scored 35 goals this season) is an example if he’s playing in League Two more teams will look at him and his profile and options increase.”
Hedgemen back to work
After the high of winning the league Brechin have had to refocus this week ahead of facing Spartans.
But he revealed manager Andy Kirk quickly had their feet back on the ground at training earlier this week.
He added: “It is hard to refocus because it was the high of highs last Saturday, everyone connected with the club had a smile on their face.
“We were back to training on Tuesday night and the gaffer said to us before we started that we’d deserved to win the league but now it’s a clean slate and that we need to work hard for the next two games and hopefully there’s two more after that.
“We’ve won the league and enjoyed it but we want to go on and make it even better.
“If we could get promoted back to League Two the celebration would be even bigger than winning the league because we’d be going back up the levels.”
Another reason why Bain is eager to try to win promotion is because he expects the Highland League to be even tougher to win next season.
The former Airdrieonians, Forfar and Clyde player said: “The Highland League is very hard, you can’t drop many points and every team is always battling for something.
“I think it will only be stronger again next year, so this is our chance to try to get out of it because I think it will be better and harder again next season.”