Elgin City sign former Aberdeen goalkeeper and Elgin lad Tom Ritchie on a two-year deal to compete with Tom McHale for Borough Briggs number one position
Released by the Scottish Cup holders, and on to a chapter with his home town club.
Elgin City have signed goalkeeper Tom Ritchie following his release from Aberdeen after 13 years at the Pittodrie club.
City manager Allan Hale expressed his delighted at securing the services of the 22-year-old, who was brought up and schooled in Elgin.
He sees Ritchie as a great acquisition who can compete with regular goalie Tom McHale over what promises to be the club’s busiest season yet.
The Black and Whites face playing more than 50 fixtures in their next campaign, with four Premier Sports Cup clashes kicking off the term, soon to be followed by at least six matchdays in the new KDM Evolution Trophy.
Ritchie was highly-rated at Pittodrie in his teenage years, and enjoyed loan spells at several clubs including a stint at Huntly when Hale and his assistant Stefan Laird were in charge. He was also farmed out to Queen of the South, Peterhead, Buckie Thistle and Bonnyrigg Rose.
“It's a great piece of business for us, the fact that he's a local boy and his enthusiasm to come to Elgin was really great,” said Hale. “I'm really looking forward to working with Tom again.”
“We’re delighted to get this one over the line. “He's someone that we've worked with before, he was outstanding for us when we had him in that half a season spell at Huntly, and really contributing to helping us amass a good number of points.
“For whatever reason, his career has not quite kicked on the way that we maybe expected it would, based on what we saw when he first came with us - but sometimes that can happen.
“I think what's important for Tom at this stage of his career is that he comes somewhere he knows he will be trusted, a good environment for him where he'll be pushed but he'll also learn and he'll develop at the same time.”
Elgin had McHale and Kilmarnock loan keeper Aidan Glavin last season, and their manager felt it was important to have strong competition in the goalkeeping position as well as every other area on the park.
“When Tom (McHale) got injured I was scrambling about to find a goalkeeper, and it obviously worked out when we got Aidan in.
“This year, as soon as we found out that Tom (Ritchie) wasn’t being extended at Aberdeen, we went straight in for him.
“Coming out of full-time football his preference would obviously be to remain there but once we knew that he wanted to go part-time, we kept in touch with Tom and his agent and thankfully we've been able to get him in.”
Ritchie made his first City appearance in Tuesday night’s friendly win over Fraserburgh, coming on as a half time sub for McHale.
“I thought he showed up really well and I'm really delighted we've got two excellent goalkeepers on our books now which can only be a good thing for Elgin City,” Hale added.
“Both of them are really professional in how they go about their business. They're really competitive, they want that number one jersey but at the same time they'll support each other the way that you would expect team-mates to do so.
“It's a battle that I'm really looking forward to see how it develops. Both goalkeepers will get their minutes throughout the season. We've got 56 games this year as a minimum so we'll be making sure that we rotate that squad in the best way possible.
Hale believes Ritchie will be in the best possible hands with City’s goalkeeping coach Gordon Milne.
“I think Tom’s had a bad couple of years in terms of how he's been looked after but he’s a fantastic keeper. You can see with the ball at his feet he's very good and I think once he gets that sharpness and that confidence back he'll be great for us.
“It can only be a good thing when he’s pushing Tom McHale for the positio.
“Our goalkeeping coach Gordon has been a breath of fresh air since he's come in the door.
“He's really detailed, really thorough and really professional on how he goes about his sessions and you know the information that he provides to me and Stefan on a regular basis about the goalkeepers is top level stuff.
“I also know how much he was looking forward to working with Tom as well. He came to me with a whole host of information in terms of where he felt he could improve him and why that was a goalkeeper that he wanted in the door.
“We have so much confidence in Gordon's ability to improve the goalkeepers and align them to the way we want to play, and that’s a reflection of the great work that Gordon's being doing since he’s come to this club.”