NEW Musselburgh Athletic manager Liam Burns has encouraged his team to take inspiration from rivals Tranent Juniors.
The Olivebank side confirmed Burns’ return to the club, where he previously worked under Kevin Milne, before the goalless draw with Haddington Athletic on Saturday.
Burns was set to step into the managerial hot seat for the first time yesterday evening (Wednesday) as his new side defeated Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale.
Speaking to Courier Sport on Tuesday afternoon, the new manager called for his team to give everything – and looked fewer than five miles east for inspiration.
Tranent Juniors won the top flight of the East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) last term before going on to defeat St Cuthbert Wanderers, champions of the South of Scotland Football League, and winners of the West of Scotland Football League Darvel to achieve promotion.
Since then, the Belters have held their own in the fifth tier of Scottish football – the Scottish Lowland Football League.
Burns said: “It just shows what can be achievable if you do the right things on and off the park.
“I never saw many Tranent games but went to a couple of them and they did fantastic to win the league.
“A lot of people did not give them a chance in the play-offs as well because Darvel spend this much or that much but fair play to them.
“Getting promoted is a massive achievement – one million per cent it gives inspiration to us.
“Look what can happen with a team five minutes up the road.
“That gives you inspiration to what this club can achieve in the long-term.”
Burns, who runs Technical Edge Coaching Academy in Musselburgh, is no stranger to Olivebank.
He was previously involved with Musselburgh Windsor before joining Milne’s backroom staff at the beginning of last season.
After Milne’s surprise departure, Burns stepped in as interim boss before the club appointed Joe Hamill as player/manager.
Since then, he has been involved with FC Edinburgh but took the decision to step into a manager’s role for the first time.
Now Burns, who has also worked with the Hibernian academy and at Leith Athletic, is looking forward to taking on the challenge of pushing Musselburgh up the EoSFL Premier Division table.
His first training session took place on Monday evening – just 48 hours before the visit of LTHV.
Burns, who will be assisted by former Leith Athletic favourite Wayne Sproule, said: “I’ve spoken to the players and said to them we will work on things going forward in terms of how we play, how we build, how we press and whatever we need to do tactically.
“In the short term, I want as much effort as possible.
“I want people to come to the game against Lothian Thistle Hutchison Vale and go: ‘Wow, they run about, they work as hard as they have worked in a long, long time.’
“In the short term, the more we can raise the levels of intensity in training, we will see that in the matches.
“To be fair to the boys, I spoke to them and if we are going to train like that then there we will no issues – they trained very well.”
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