Connor Young admits Dunfermline’s training camp in Bulgaria gives him the perfect opportunity to pick the brains of experienced team-mate Chris Kane.
Young joined the Pars in January when his prolific form for League Two Edinburgh City attracted widespread attention.
He netted 19 times in 28 appearances for City, including in a 2-1 defeat to Dunfermline in the Scottish Cup, enticing the Fifers to splash out a five-figure sum on the 20-year-old.
However, despite encouraging signs, Young failed to break his duck for his new club before sustaining a serious ankle ligament injury in the last of his eight appearances in black and white – Neil Lennon’s debut in March.
Now fully fit again, the former Hibernian and Rangers youngster is determined to do all he can to make his mark on Lennon’s side in the coming campaign.
“I’ve really enjoyed it,” said Young of his time at Dunfermline so far. “The boys, it’s a great group. They’ve got real togetherness about them.
“They took me in straight away and it’s been brilliant ever since.
“Making that transition (to full-time football) was difficult to start with, but coming in and getting a good pre-season will do me the world of good.
“Pre-season is difficult, everyone’s feeling it, but it’s just going to have you ready for the season starting.
“It’s good getting away with the boys, creating that togetherness and building on what we’ve already got. The new boys that have come in will gel with the group as well.”
Young: ‘He’s been brilliant with me’
Turning to his relationship with former St Johnstone striker Kane, Young added: “He’s been brilliant with me, personally, since I’ve come in.
“You can see on a Saturday how good he is and how vital he is to the team. I’ll try and pick wee bits out of his game and add it to mine.
“He’s been putting confidence into me and just helping me – with things that he’s good at that I maybe need to work on. I’m just taking that off him.”
After beginning his youth career at Hibs, Rangers paid a transfer fee to take Young west before he had to go part-time in 2023 to start again with Clyde and Edinburgh City to rebuild his career.
“It was just about getting my confidence again, really,” he added. “And getting that taste of men’s football, playing every week as well.
“To be fair, [City] did take a big gamble on me at the time, because the season before that I didn’t do too well. They took a gamble on me and I did well there.
“You’re always going to get setbacks, that’s just part of football. It’s never going to be plain sailing, it’s just about how you react to it.
“It’s just reminding myself what I can do, and just trying to do that as much as I possibly can.”
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