Aberdeenshire Shield preview: Deveronvale’s Jack Mitchell hopes extra efforts pay off in pursuit of final spot

Jack Mitchell hopes the extra work he’s been doing can help Deveronvale reach their first final since September 2011.

The Banffers take on Aberdeen at Princess Royal Park on Wednesday night in the semi-final of the Morrison Motors (Turriff) Aberdeenshire Shield.

Aside from training with Vale twice a week, attacker Mitchell has also been linking up with former Dons under-18 coach Scott Anderson, who launched his own coaching business earlier this year, to work on individual attributes.

Mitchell is hoping Deveronvale will reap the rewards of his extra endeavours.

The 19-year-old, who is the current Breedon Highland League young player of the year, said: “I think doing extra work is helping me.

“It’s a good opportunity to work on things that I want to improve on or to add extra bits and pieces to my game.

“The more work you put in, the more you should get out of yourself.

“The reason for doing it is to help me push on for Deveronvale so hopefully the club will see the benefit of the extra work I’m doing.

“I felt I started the season quite slowly, hopefully I can get back to the levels I was at last season and start scoring more regularly.

“But results are the main thing and whether I’m scoring or contributing in other ways it’s about trying to help the team get results.

“With Scott I’ll work on attributes linked to my position such as crossing, finishing, ball control and all-round winger play.

“I’m at college on a Monday, Thursday and Friday and I work on a Wednesday, but I manage to do a session with Scott on a Tuesday.”

Vale eager to have final say

Mitchell would love to help Deveronvale reach the final of the Shield, but knows it will be difficult against Aberdeen, who have already won the Evening Express Aberdeenshire Cup this season.

The Banffers are also looking to bounce back to form after four successive defeats in the Highland League.

Mitchell added: “Getting to a cup final would change our whole season.

“It would be really good to get there and have a chance to win silverware because it’s been a while since the club has done that.

“Hopefully we can be the team to do that for the club and we’ll give it our all to get to the final.

“It would be huge to get the club into a final as a reward for all the fans who support us, all the people on the committee and the volunteers who back the club.

“Hopefully we can do it and give those people a final to look forward to.

“But it will be a tough game against Aberdeen, they’re full-time and we know they’ll be sharp.

“We’ve had a tough spell of late, but that can happen at times.

“We’ve got a good group of lads at the club and it’s up to us to show our character and get out of the tough spell.

“I’ve got no doubt we’ll get back into better form soon.”

[Source: Press and Journal]