Game of family misfortunes as Town wield axe on father and sondugoutduo
NO.1 FOR JUNIORS
YET another new broom albeit one containing plenty of old bristles is about to sweep through Shettleston Juniors.
The famous old Glasgow club’s failure to win promotion from the Super First Division last season has seen the managerial reins taken away from John Fallon and his father, also John.
By coincidence, they have been handed over to another family pairing of ex-St Anthony’s figurehead James McKenna and his cousin Keith Docherty, better known as the highly successful boss of Broomhouse Amateurs in recent seasons.
And the new men at the helm have not been slow in changing the Greenfield Park outlook with fully 16 new signings coming on board to augment the quartet of players – Bob Campbell, Ross Dickson, Rikky McIntosh and goalkeeper Gary Whyte – retained from last season’s disappointing campaign.
Embarking on a near total rebuild is nothing new to Cotter, whose legendary status in and around Govan was acquired through his ability to build teams from scratch, and he was typically brimming over with enthusiasm last night when looking forward to his new role on the other side of the city.
He said: “Getting back into Junior team management was not in my mind when taking in a couple of Shettleston’s games towards the end of last season.
“Hugh Kelly and I had chatted at these games, as you do when long-time dugout adversaries meet up.
“But right out of the blue he phoned me one night to come in for a meeting at which he offered me the job as team manager.
“I won’t deny the prospect of a whole new challenge appealed and I decided to give it a go along with Keith and it’s been a whirlwind of activity ever since trying to put the framework of a team together.
“And I’m glad to say we’ve managed to bring together some top playing talents thanks in no small way to Keth’s standing and knowledge in the amateur ranks along with a number of my former players throwing in their lot with me.”
Highly-rated striker David Omosuk heads up a sevenstrong recruitment drive from Broomhouse along with teammates Mark McGeough, Kevin Kilday, Craig Scott, Darry McKernon and brothers Gary and Scott Weir while arriving from St Anthonys are Thomas Miller and Kieron Marshall.
COTTER added: “My former Ants striker Jamie Docherty has also promised to sign and coming back to Shettleston is their former team captain Reon Juskowiack whose appearances with Bellshill Athletic last season were limited by injury.
“The former Pollok and Cambuslang Rangers midfielder Ryan Scanlon and a young prospect Gary Fallon are in from Fauldhouse Amateurs.
“Of course, getting everyone to gel is the hard bit of the teambuilding job but already we have several players champing at the bit and wanting to i mprove their fitness in readiness for the new season – and that’s almost six weeks further down the line.
“Their enthusiasm has caused Keith and I to schedule pre-season training to start up again on Tuesday, June 27, and the plan is to cram in nine or ten sessions before we get down to playing a very tough pre-season schedule of games against some of the top Junior clubs going the rounds.”
The new Town gaffer, whose backroom team is set to include former gaffer Kelly, believes there will be further newcomers to unveil over the coming weeks.
He said: “It’s no secret that I am keen to snap up the former St Roch’s player Rab McGuire. I cannot promise overnight success but if we can put together a core of players with a knowledge of the Super First Division augmented by guys capable of producing the bits of magic that win games then Shettleston will do well in the coming season.”
Meanwhile, Auchinleck Talbot sealed a silverware finish to their season last night with a scintillating 5-1 victory over Cumnock in the Ayrshire Cup Final.
One-time Nock signing Graham Wilson opened the floodgates with a 13-th minute opener and he added a further counter that allowed Talbot to go in at the interval 2-0 up.
Cumnock full-back Keiran Woods raised hopes of a fightback when halving his side’s deficit early in the second period but Wilson was not to be denied his hat-trick for a 3-1 scoreline that duly rose to 5-1 as Mark Shankland netted a well taken brace of goals over the closing stages.