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Tadious Manyepo-Sports Reporter
YOUNG Warriors midfielder Seth Patrick is smiling after extending his stay at Scottish lower league side Brechin City which he joined in January this year.
Patrick joined the club following months of forlorn club hunting.
And he has knuckled down his place in Darren Dod’s side after featuring 14 times from which he has provided a single assist.
This has seen Patrick being rewarded with a 12 months’ contract extension in a move which has been welcomed by his handlers.
Patrick, who turns 22 on May 2, had been without a club since July last year after cutting ties with English side St Ives Town.
Instead the player, who starred for the Zimbabwe Under-23 team in back-to-back clashes against Mozambique in Olympic qualifiers in 2018, was working for Amazon at a time the Covid-19 pandemic was wreaking havoc across the globe.
With only two caps from those matches against Mozambique four years ago, Patrick was being touted as the next big thing to happen in Zimbabwean football and he was expected to break into the senior side before he was even in the north of 20 years.
But his career took a knock along the way and he had been hopping across lower league teams in Europe, including Germany and England.
And he had been restive since his last marriage with St Ives Town. But the latest development has renewed his hopes of finally making it into the Warriors team.
Brechin City manager, Dods, has since described the Zimbabwean player as a marvel. “Seth has come in and given us loads of energy. He has started all the games and he is a player who likes to get about the park and press the opposition. He is aggressive in play and he will make out team better and he keeps improving,” said Dods.
Brechin City play in the Scottish Division 5 league which is the equivalent of the English Conference League.
Former Arcadia United player, Charlie White, a development coach based in the UK who also helped the player in some of his game aspects, said Patrick needed this breakthrough.
“I personally would say what a find Seth is for this club as he needed to settle down, think football and put aside too much interference from those that tried to control his football. At 16 and 17 years of age, I took him for extra shooting practice lessons, tactical marking, application of tenacity, controlled aggression and vision awareness during play and it seems to have paid off while he was at Northampton FC.
“Brechin City could find him a top club and to me this is a new beginning for the boy in the world of football dominated by managers that think differently to certain players,” said White.
Patrick served his apprenticeship at the Northampton Academy in the English Football Association League in the Conference and Division Two before he was recommended for the Young Warriors by renowned UK-based development coach, Philip Zulu.
Zulu informed Zimbabwean football lover, Mistry Chipare, who was head hunting for foreign-based youngsters to convince the ZIFA regime to give the lad a chance against Mozambique.
By then aged 17 with Northampton FC as like many youth academies usually do, he was released and in that same season (2018-19), Zulu had found him a club in Germany with FC Shwanheim before arranging for him a move to VfB Lubeck as an Under-19 player.
Seth’s father, Barry Patrick, financed his son’s move and paid for accommodation while the German clubs assisted in transport and other needs.
In Germany, some of the clubs were not very forthcoming and Seth felt restless as he was promised games against the likes of Bayern Munchen Under-23 and Borussia Dortmund Under-23 so as he could get noticed.
Online Reporter