Elgin City midfielder Russell Dingwall delighted to sign two-year contract extension with Borough Briggs club.
The transformation at Elgin City this season persuaded Russell Dingwall to sign a new contract with the club.
The 27-year-old has penned a two-year extension, joining Tom McHale and Ryan MacLeman in pledging their future to City this week.
Dingwall’s typically livewire performances this term have helped Elgin make a challenge for promotion, bucking the trend of recent relegation battles.
He says the team’s vast improvement comes down to the arrival of manager Allan Hale and his assistant Stefan Laird, bringing togetherness to the Black and Whites’ camp.
“I just really enjoy my time here and I feel like I’m at at home with pretty much all the boys,” he said. “We're a very close-knit group and that's one thing you look for obviously when you're playing football is the changing room, and it's full of good characters.
“I've made friends for life here, ones I speak to pretty much every day even when we're not training.
“The management team have been massive for me since they've come in, they've obviously turned the whole club around and I get on really well with them.
“So yes, it was an easy decision to sign on again. The manager called me in around December time saying he wanted to offer me a new contract and it was always something I was going to take up.”
Just like in his previous five seasons at Elgin, Dingwall has provided a big scoring threat as well as contributing greatly to their performances.
The Dingwall-based player is joint-top scorer with seven goals, and has netted 38 times in 223 appearances for the club.
He was part of the Elgin squad that reached the play-offs during the pandemic season, losing to Edinburgh City in the semi-finals.
But he also admits finding it hard to see the Black and Whites struggle in subsequent campaigns and is thrilled that their challenge has been reignited this year.
“Football things are looking good at the moment so everything's going well. Everyone's happy where things are going well.
“We have had some hard times, finishing ninth, ninth and eighth in the last three seasons. We were all fighting against relegation and things going on behind the scenes, obviously that's over my head but you hear whispers and stuff.
“That all seems to have been put to bed and we're hopefully on the right path now.
“This season we started off flying and we're right up there. Maybe this last month through injuries, and it just happens, you're going to have peaks and troughs throughout the season.
“We've had a couple of draws and losses but we're still right where we want to be and if we can win on Saturday (against East Fife) that'll keep us alive going for the league.
“If not, obviously our main ambition is just to get to the play-offs and see what happens from there.”
So what will it take for Elgin to achieve their holy grail of promotion after 25 years of trying? Dingwall believes the signing of a certain star striker last week could certainly help matters.
“I suppose the club will be hoping it's Kane Hester who drives us on. But we've played every team now two or some even three times and we feel like on our day we're as good as anyone.
“So it's just getting back to being consistent, hopefully a few boys will be back in the coming weeks which will strengthen up the squad again and just try and kick on and have a strong part in the final part of the season.”
Manager Allan Hale highlighted how key Dingwall was to his future plans.
“He is someone that you hang your hat on to deliver all the time,” Hale said.
“He doesn't always deliver outstanding performances but carries himself with so much weight in terms of the value that we put on him.
“Every thing that we ask him, he does that. He's a winner and he really drives our standards in the dressing room in terms of trying to bring the best out of other people as well.
“He trains exactly the same way as he plays, his personality in that sense is really infectious.
“The rest of the staff have a lot of trust in. He's a really important figure for us.
“We're delighted because there was interest in these players as you can imagine.”
