DON’T SHUT OUT THE AMBITIOUS
Aitken sees benefits of expanding the lower leagues
NEW East Kilbride manager Stephen Aitken has urged the Scottish football authorities to stop throttling the ambition of Lowland League teams. The former Dumbarton and Stranraer boss signed for the club on Friday, bringing his brother Chris and Rangers legend Ian Durrant on to his coaching staff.
His brief is to battle for promotion to the professional ranks next season, the lower leagues of which Aitken believes were already past their sell-by date before the recent crisis that has beset the game.
As a result of the coronavirus shutdown enforcing relegation on clubs without completing the season, reconstruction of the four divisions of the SPFL has been on the table.
And if any good comes out of that sorry saga, Aitken hopes the authorities will be more open to rewarding the enterprise of clubs in the Lowland set-up.
Since 2014/15, the Scottish league pyramid revamp created a play-off system whereby winners of the Lowland and Highland Leagues would clash for the right to face the bottom team in League Two. Kelty Hearts were declared champions this season on 25 games but denied the chance to go for promotion as the calling of League Two early resulted in Brechin City retaining their status. That decision and the existence of play-offs themselves, said Aitken, must be examined if an uncertain future for Scottish football is not to look any gloomier than now.
East Kilbride are one of a handful of clubs who believe they are ready for the SPFL and, therefore, would welcome an expansion of League Two to 16 clubs.
‘The lower leagues of Scottish football have gone stale,’ insisted Aitken. ‘There aren’t enough teams for four leagues for a start. You can have lots of debates going forward about what they are trying to achieve right now.
‘But what you want to look at is trying to get clubs with ambition into the division and League Two should be 16 teams.
‘There’s ambitious clubs who can bring a lot to the party. To win a league and have to go through play-off games for promotion can’t be right.
‘Kelty Hearts were terrific last season and invested a lot and didn’t get the chance to go up, while Brechin City could have fallen out. But that won’t happen, so that should be looked at.
‘But we need to focus on competing at the top of the league and try to bridge the gap with the likes of Kelty Hearts and BSC Glasgow to make sure we’re challenging.’
Aitken and Durrant return to the game in partnership for the first time since leaving Dumbarton in October 2018.
They had kept the Sons afloat for two seasons as a part-time outfit in the Championship before relegation to League One in May of that year.
The 43-year-old was tempted back to the dugout by the ambition on display at K-Park.
At his socially-distanced unveiling yesterday, he surveyed new stadium plans and promoted their strip sponsorship deal with local whisky maker Raer.
‘There’s no limit to what this club can achieve. The club is so ambitious and has the right people behind it,’ said Aitken.
‘When you look at parttime teams in the Championship, then getting to that level has to be the goal. ‘We’ve got a big project here with a new stadium that could be built tomorrow. I’ve seen the plans and it would put a lot of clubs to shame. But we’re not daft. We need to walk before we can run.
‘To get long-term success I need to get the short term right, so this is the biggest season for me.
‘This league has a lot of good teams. You see what Kelty did last season, BSC going on in the Scottish Cup. This won’t be easy.
‘The rewards are there and the guys are desperate to get to the senior ranks. Once up there, the world’s their oyster, they can really go. But we need to take it a step at a time. ‘I was tempted by other offers when I was out the game because when you lose your job as a manager, you want to get back into it. ‘I wanted to make sure my next job was right, sometimes you’ve got to be patient and I am glad that I was.’
East Kilbride have twice topped the Lowland League but stalled at the play-off stage in the bid for promotion.
Last season’s campaign came to an end in March with the team in seventh place. ‘We’ve probably overstayed our welcome here,’ noted Aitken. ‘There are good players here and I’m looking forward to starting the recruiting process.’