Airdrie & Coatbridge Advertiser
Boss Brogan’s gone all quiet
Albion Rovers ’form since the turn of the year has rightly given their fans cause for concern.
In fact, it has left some contemplating the long-term future of the club.
Rovers were relegated from League One on the final day of last season, with a 2-0 defeat at Ayr’s Somerset Park the result that saw them headed straight for League Two and missing out on the chance of even a play-off reprieve.
Following just two wins since the turn of the year, Brian Kerr left the club in May, along with the vast majority of the playing staff, and moved on to East Kilbride.
He was replaced by former Lanark United and Gartcairn Jumiors gaffer, John Brogan.
An ex-Rovers player – in their all-time XI, no less – Brogan had a tough rebuilding job on his plate.
With a playing budget tighter than two coats of paint, it was never going to be easy to return to League One at the first time of asking.
But back then Brogan was adamant his raft of “risk-free ”junior signings and young loanees from various Scottish clubs was a perfect recipe for success, and not the lethal cocktail their league position in mid-October suggests.
Rovers have four points on the board now, having recently taken one from Cowdenbeath and three at home to Stirling Albion.
Until then the club had lost 11 matches in a row and scored one goal in nine games.
Despite this, Brogan remained admirably buoyant and positive about his team’s predicament and faced up to questions from the Advertiser every Monday without fail.
He even invited disillusioned Rovers fans to attend the club’s training sessions for a chat about their concerns.
We in turn covered his team’s trials and tribulations with an even hand.
Last month, before Rovers had recorded a single league point, the Advertiser interviewed outgoing Rovers chairman Ronnie Boyd about Rovers’ predicament and he confirmed the board would “take stock” of Brogan’s position during the international break.
Naturally we reported this as news.
The article referred to Rovers’ “abhorrent” form in 2018 as a whole as well as this current season.
This resulted in a phone call from an irate Brogan, asking if we were “trying to get him sacked”.
This sort of outburst is par for the course when people are passionate about what they do and perhaps frustrated when plans go awry.
However, throughout the intervening three weeks the Rovers boss has failed to return any of our calls and text messages.
This is a disappointing turn of events, not just for the Advertiser but also our readers and Rovers as a club.
Mr Brogan would do well to remember that the Advertiser is a newspaper that tells it like it is. Not a PR company that says what he wants to hear.