MacPhee vows to learn from painful past experiences

AUSTIN MacPHEE has lost a World Cup play-off match with Northern Ireland and endured the pain of losing last season’s Scottish Cup Final to Celtic from a winning position.

Both games had career and life-defining consequences, but lacked the brutality of the gut-punch delivered in Hearts’ 3-0 defeat to Kilmarnock last weekend.

Such is the price of frontline management.

‘Since I was a wee boy, it had been my dream to get to a World Cup, so that play-off defeat in Switzerland was particularly difficult,’ said the interim boss.

‘The Scottish Cup Final was also tough because we had worked forensically to prepare the team.

‘I always felt it was going to be a massive moment in Craig Levein’s career, given the pressure he was under and the talk about him winning a trophy.

‘So those were the two games as an assistant where I felt the most pain and yet I still went home last Saturday feeling worse.

‘You feel more responsible because, ultimately, it is you making the decisions.’

When he stepped up to succeed Levein on a caretaker basis last month, MacPhee was pitched straight into a Betfred Cup semi-final against Rangers.

Rather than run with the old game-plan, he tried to shake things up but saw a refashioned team beaten in the same comprehensive fashion that has come to define a troubling season at Tynecastle.

Better was the performance the following weekend as St Mirren were defeated 5-2 but the first-half showing at Rugby Park was a regression as basic errors and lack of concentration ruined the prospects of a result.

‘I never like to sweep things under the carpet, so we went through everything with the players and it was a crazy eight minutes that put us out of the game,’ admits MacPhee. ‘The first person you look at is yourself. I think the decisions you make after a goal are very important and sometimes goals can make you react when sometimes you need to take time to consider any changes.

‘That’s one of my observations.’ MacPhee (right) had barely 48 hours to come up with a strategy for Hampden but, in theory, should be far better prepared for this afternoon’s league rematch at Ibrox.

He remains a contender for both the position of head coach and the new sporting director post but is fully aware the club are talking to other, more experienced candidates.

With club chair Ann Budge locked in negotiations with ex-Barnsley boss Daniel Stendel, MacPhee knows that even an unexpected result today may not be enough.

He continued: ‘It doesn’t feel strange because I know what is happening. Ann speaks to me pretty much every day and is very open and honest.

‘I know who is being spoken to and I am comfortable with that and I do believe that is the right process for the club. I am not scared by it.

‘I genuinely want what is best for the club and, as I’ve said before, if I have a part to play in that in the future, that will be great.

‘If I don’t, then I’m sure it will be articulated to me in a way that I will understand the rationale.

‘However, I think that the club is going to restructure in a way that looks to the next five years. It has had a structure that has taken it from administration and Championship football to consistent top-six finishes.

‘It now needs a tweak in the structure that delivers consistent European football and that comes from finishing in the top four nine years out of 10.

‘It comes from getting 60 points, which comes from winning half your games, consistently. Ann is looking at everything the football department and beyond do to allow the club to do those things.’

Reaction to MacPhee’s candidacy has been mixed, with the BBC issuing an on-air apology after an ‘unbalanced’ discussion on his coaching merits prior to the St Mirren match.

Sensibly, he has moved on from the spat involving pundit Allan Preston and insists he has a thick enough skin to cope with the stick that is an occupational hazard.

If the fixture card has been unkind in serving up a second Glasgow meeting with Rangers in just four games, he insists the job won’t get him down.

‘I enjoy it,’ insisted MacPhee. ‘I think that in life you always learn from things that don’t go well more than from things that do.

‘I feel I have the resilience to be involved in this profession and I have learned how important it is, especially when there is a power vacuum and you are only the caretaker manager, to find a way to manage through relationships. I have felt comfortable doing that.

‘It would be foolish, as a caretaker manager, to try to rule with an iron fist because, ultimately, you are not in a permanent position. Defeats are disappointing, wins leave you relieved but I have confidence in my own ability to help a football club, irrespective of the role.’