Huntly striker Brodie Allen plans to resurrect Highland League career on loan at Lossiemouth as he plays against some of his clients from his personal fitness trainer business
Fitness trainer Brodie Allen plans to get Lossiemouth active after completing a loan deal from Huntly back to his former club.
The 27-year-old came through the youth ranks with the Coasters before joining Highland League rivals Huntly three years ago.
A lack of match starts this season with the Christie Park club meant he has been farmed out to his former side for the rest of the season, and he can’t wait to get started.
Allen recently started his own business as an online personal fitness coach, and says he is in the best shape of his life, just like his clients.
He wants to prove he is moving into the optimum stage of his sporting career by scoring goals at Lossie and continuing their improvement under new manager Steve Porter.
“The goal is to come here, get minutes, get a run of starts, hopefully get goals and come back to Huntly as the best version of myself,” he said.
“The difference I feel in my body from leaving my old job as a plumber to working as an online coach now in the fitness industry, I take a lot better care of my body.
“So I'm feeling like I'm coming into my prime and that on top of your own headspace as you grow into being a more experienced player now.
“All those things coming together I feel like my best years are ahead of me.”
Allen revealed that he trains not only some of his own team-mates and opponents, but footballers at SPFL level.
“I've got a lot of clients that are Highland League footballers, junior footballers, even a couple that are up League 1, League 2.
“So seeing what works for them and feedback I'm getting from them, I'm able to implement things, take it into my own training or give things from my training into their programmes.
“It all benefits myself, it benefits my clients. So it's good to have that reference point to see what works and what maybe doesn't work.”
The striker has been unlucky not to make a proper breakthrough at Huntly since his switch from Lossie in January 2022, along with team-mate Ryan Sewell.
His battle to grab a starting position in his favoured central striking role has been blocked by some of the best front players in the Highland League.
“When I first signed, I was competing with Andrew Hunter for a place and he had a fantastic season. I think he got over 25 goals.
“I was in and out a little bit. I started off quite well, but then struggled for game time towards the end and then during that time, Angus Grant was coming back from his ACL injury. So he was getting himself back, getting his shots back and he's been absolutely flying this season.
“I'm so chuffed for Angus. We’re best pals off the pitch. Obviously, we're fighting for the same position.
“I know I'm struggling to break in with the form he's in. So I've had the conversation with (Huntly manager) Colin (Charlesworth) a couple of times and he's been brand new with it all as well. He totally understands it.
“It's just a case of trying to get myself a run of games, some minutes, some goals and hopefully get a bit of confidence back.”
Many of Allen’s Lossiemouth team-mates from his first spell at the club are still there and he knows the majority of the squad, so he is confident he will fit back in nicely.
A late starter in football, he began in Lossie’s youth development just before his 18th birthday. Loan spells in the juniors with Fochabers, New Elgin and Dufftown helped propel him into the Coasters’ first team, where his goals and performances soon caught the eye.
“I was quite fortunate with how things panned out. I know it was kind of a difficult situation for Lossie at the time, quite short on experienced boys and stuff like that.
“So a lot of our youth players just got thrown into the deep end and I think that benefitted me massively.
“Charlie Charlesworth took me up a couple of times on the bench and he gave me my first game off the bench. Then Iain MacRae gave me my first start and Joe Russell took over from there and I worked with Joe and Ian (Campbell) for the majority of my time.
“I was down at the club last night and joined in at training. It was good to see a lot of familiar faces and I'll be back down on Thursday before the game on Saturday (at Nairn County).
“Guys like Jimmy Leslie, Lewis McAndrew, Jared Kennedy, Connor Macauley, Liam and Ross Archibald, Ross Morrison and Ryan Stuart - they were all there when I was last at the club.
“I used to work with Owen Paterson and I know his brother(Ross) and a lot of the younger signings like Ryan Matheson and Shaun Cameron, who I trained with at Dufftown for a while.
“So there's nobody that I had no idea who they are. It's just a case of going in and hopefully hitting the ground running.
“There's none of this having to meet everybody and get to know everybody. Hopefully I can just go in and fit in quite seamlessly.”
Allen may have to initially fight his way into Porter’s starting line-up, as the Coasters go into Saturday’s Nairn trip on the back of two consecutive victories over Strathspey Thistle and Keith to lift them away from the league’s basement zone.
Allen added; “Everybody knows how difficult it can be if you get a run of games without a win. So it was buzzing for them to see that they got a couple of back-to-back wins.
“It'll just fill everybody full of confidence. The boys all look fit and I’m pretty confident going forward that we can hopefully string a few results together.
“Steve (manager Porter) coached both of my brothers. I've spoken to him a few times watching the Elgin City games and stuff like that.
“I’m looking forward to playing for him.”
