East Kilbride Thistle’s new signing Barry Russell insists it is great to be back at the club that launched his senior career.
And now he hopes to see a return to the feel good factor at the Showpark under new boss Garry O’Hanlon.
The 33-year-old, who had a loan spell from Lowland League East Kilbride FC in 2018, has joined the club for the third time in his career and it comes 15 years after making his debut for his hometown team.
Much has changed since his days under Colin Mitchell and Ian Penman that earned him a big senior move to Albion Rovers in 2011, but he hopes to help the club be a force in the West of Scotland League Third Division next term.
He said: “I’m absolutely buzzing to be back at the place where it all started.
“Hopefully I’ve got a few years left in me to stay here and finish my career here on a high. It was always in my mind to do this at one point.
“Things had kind of died a death a bit around the club for a few years, but recently it’s really picked up and people at the club, like Kris MacKinnon [the club’s operations manager], have been on at me, trying to get me to sign.
“I spoke to [assistant boss] Aaron Connolly and Garry and I wanted to come back to try and help lift things at the Showpark again, and get the supporters back in to watch the team.
“Hopefully, we can get the team back to the way they were playing when I was last here under Mitch and Baggus (Ian Penman).”
Russell is a familiar face around the town after captaining rivals East Kilbride FC, winning two Lowland League titles with them and skippering the side against his boyhood heroes in the Scottish Cup in 2016.
However, he has spent the past two season in the West of Scotland Football League with St Roch’s after he was let go by then Kilby boss Stevie Aitken.
And Russell admitted: “I did want to finish my career at EKFC, but the league was getting tougher, I was getting a bit older, players were getting sharper so things never really worked out, but I still finished on good terms with everyone there.
“It’s a great club but the manager thought there were better players than me there so it was right to move on and now I’m at EK Thistle, which is brilliant.
“I know things are going well at EKFC so there’s no reason why they can’t be go well here as well.”
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