Martin’s up for test

New Scone Thistle manager Paul Martin is determined to keep the club in the North Super League.

The Jags’boss, who was appointed last week, realises his team needs to start accumulating a greater number of points consistently.

The Farquharson Park side sit third bottom of the table, three points ahead of basement team Forfar West End who have two games in hand.

“Like any job it’s a challenge,”Martin told the PA. “I’m obviously looking forward to that challenge and hopefully we can turn it around.

“It won’t be for the want of trying. The priority is to stay in the league and then see what happens at the end of the season.

“We need to start winning games to keep ourselves up. Other teams are starting to pick up points and have games in hand.”

Martin has taken a couple of training sessions since stepping in to the role and believes the squad has quality.

“Our next official game will be Carnoustie at home [March 7] and that will be a tough ask,”he explained.

“There are good players at Scone, there is no question about that. They are probably underachieving a wee bit.

“I’ve only had a couple of training sessions but there seems to be a healthy pool of players.”

As well as experienced players in the squad, Martin knows the community club is constantly thriving to bring through talented youngsters.

“Like any youth player, they all need that bit of time and encouragement,” said Martin.

“But if they are playing well, then why shouldn’t they stay in the team?”

A Scone statement read:“Paul brings with him a wealth of knowledge and experience of the game across the East Region Juniors and beyond.

“We would like to welcome Paul to the club and very much look forward to working alongside him.”