Ambitious teenager Kenzie Mitchell says he’s bidding to make a Somerset impact – less than two months after arriving at Ayr United.
The 16-year-old has catapulted himself into the first team picture after impressing Scott Brown a matter of weeks since walking through the door.
Dundonald kid Mitchell completed his whirlwind spell by stepping off the bench in yesterday’s Scottish Cup rout at Broxburn. And he’s told how the decision to leave St Mirren’s youth setup in search of game time is already paying off in spectacular style.
Mitchell told the Ayrshire Post: “I came on trial around two months ago because I wasn’t getting much game time with St Mirren and I wanted to stand on my own two feet.
“I was training every other day with the 18s here and was asked to play in the reserve game down at Queen of the South the other week where I got 30 minutes and did what I could.
“The manager was there that day and asked me the next day if I could come in and train with the first team. Ever since then I’ve been in with the first team – it’s been a surreal few weeks.”
Mitchell, a powerful winger, comes from footballing stock with dad Bryan having turned out for Troon Juniors and the youngster’s potential has earned him a rapid promotion to the first team setup.
He made the bench for the trip to Dunfermline on Tuesday night – just days after inking his Under 18s deal. And yesterday’s cameo at Albyn Park, which saw Academy stars like Dylan Watret and Jamie Hislop among those to shine, has now propelled Mitchell as the latest name into the limelight.
Mitchell said: “The manager has been great with me and said if you’re good enough you’re old enough. The truth is I wasn’t even thinking of first team football when I came here – for me it was about game time. When you move up to 18s football there can be a lot of older boys in front of you, so I didn’t expect anything major to come about at first.
“But I’m glad I’ve taken the opportunity. The main thing is about trying to get as much game time as I can. Jamie Murphy is someone I’m working closely with and he sees what I’ve got – he’s had a great career and is still such a good player so I’ll take whatever I can off him and hopefully it works out.”
Boss Brown has told how he quickly had to act to bring Mitchell in with his first team group and says youngsters like him will always be given the opportunity if they have the talent.
He said: “The good thing about this club is youth will always be given the opportunity and if they’re good enough they’ll get that chance to come on and deliver on the park.
“We brought Kenzie in from St Mirren where he’d been in their youth academy and he was able to bypass our youths and come straight in with the first team. We’ll probably look to do more of that going forward – we want to steal the best young ones who maybe haven’t quite made it in the SPL and we’ll try and take them in as much as we can.”