New boss: I’m staggered to even be given the opportunity to manage this great club

turned to Murty and confirmed that he will remain at the helm until the end of the Premiership campaign.

Murty said: “When the board asked me and said they’d taken everything into consideration, we like the job you’re doing, we like the way you’re handling everything, will you take us forward until the end of the season. I think I’d said before there was no way I could turn that down.

“It’s not something I came here to try and do, it’s not something that was in my mind but I really want to move forward now and repay the faith the board have shown me because I’m staggered that they have but I want to get my teething it and do as good a job as I can.

“I honestly didn’t think I was in the running at all. And as low as I got, because I was annoyed at the way we played, I didn’t think that would have any bearing on it because I didn’t think I was under consideration.

“When I talked to Stewart [Robertson] and Mark [Allen] about the season moving forward only then did I allow myself to think about it.

“It’s still a little bit surreal to me that a club of this stature would give me this opportunity but there’s no way, in good conscience or my career I could ever have envisaged it or turned it down.”

Murty has recorded impressive wins over Aberdeen and Hibernian in recent weeks but saw his side crash to a 3-1 defeat at home to St Johnstone on Saturday.

Now the Gers boss is determined to make the most of the opportunity he has been given as he prepares for the Premiership clash with Kilmarnock this afternoon.

Murty said: “[I am staggered] because of the scale of the club, because of the history of the club, because it is real now as well.

“Before I was just preparing the team for someone else to come in, judge and take forward. And I was content with that.

“Now that it’s my team it has a different focus on it. There are things I would like to change, there are things I’d like to implement around the training ground, in and around our match day protocols that I think we can be sharper on.

“I haven’t wanted to rock the boat at all with the players because I think if you upset too much, it wasn’t my place because I was just trying to keep them ready for someone else coming in.

“And now I’ve got an opportunity to the end of the season to try and do things how I would do them.”