The Press and Journal (Inverness, Highlands, and Islands)
Huntly start manager hunt after pair decline new deal
Christie Park: Roddie and Wilson intend to take short break from game
Huntly are looking for a new management team after the surprise departure of co-managers Andy Roddie and Tommy Wilson yesterday.
The club made the shock announcement ahead of tonight’s Morrison Motors (Turriff ) Aberdeenshire Shield tie against Formartine United at Christie Park.
Roddie and Wilson, who took charge last December, say they intend to take a short break from the game.
The Black and Golds have made an impressive start to the season and are in fifth position in the Highland League having already beaten Brora Rangers, Formartine United and Fraserburgh this term.
The Huntly board yesterday released a statement saying the club was unable to agree a new deal with the pair. It said: “The managers’ contracts were due for renewal on December 21 and the club put forward its best offer to attempt to persuade Andy and Tommy to continue at the club.
“Regrettably they have declined those offers, which of course they are perfectly entitled to do, and so they will not be continuing their posts.
“The club has also decided to put both on gardening leave for the remaining periods of the contracts and will appoint interim managers to allow time to seek suitable replacements.”
Huntly chairman George Clark hopes to find a new manager who can build on the progress made by Roddie and Wilson.
He said: “I am disappointed that the relationship isn’t continuing as I have a great deal of respect for Andy and Tommy as they are a couple of very bright young managers who have done an excellent in job up to this point. For the Aberdeenshire Shield tie against Formartine United our usual stalwarts, Charlie Duncan and Charlie Ferries, who know a lot of the young players in particu- lar, will take charge. We are also going to ask a couple of our senior players to be involved.
“We would invite anyone who would be interested in the job to contact the club directly, obviously we want to move quickly to put a replacement in place to continue the progress the club has made over the last 12 months.”
Former co-manager Roddie confirmed last night that the parting was amicable, and said: “Tommy and I are also disappointed but it just seemed that we wanted to go in a direction from what the club wants. These things happen in football but we are grateful to the club for giving us the opportunity to manage a great club.
“People now know where we are and what we bring, and they know what we can do as we have turned Huntly around in just under a year. We have more points at this stage of the season than we accumulated in the whole of last term, and probably in each of the previous four seasons before.
“We will enjoy a break over the festive season and hopefully we can get back into the game as quickly as we can in the new year.”
Huntly forward Gary McGowan is suspended after his red card in the 2-1 win at Turriff United while Formartine may freshen things up after their excellent 1-0 Scottish Cup win over Forfar Athletic.
“Gardening leave for the remaining period”