TAKING over a team bottom of the league and having conceded 10 goals in their last fixture might not seem the most appealing way to step into the managerial hot seat for the first time.
Vale of Leithen are on course for back-to-back relegations, having finished bottom of the Scottish Lowland Football League last term.
The Borders side won just one league match last season and matched that tally in September, only to see three points docked for fielding an ineligible player. They are now rock-bottom of the East of Scotland Football League (EoSFL) Premier Division without a single point to their name.
Former Ross High School pupil Ross McLaren is now in the home dugout at Victoria Park.
He told Courier Sport he had one main aim for between now and the end of the campaign.
“To win as many games as possible – it is as simple as that,” he said.
“We are not going into any game thinking we are going to get beat. If I thought like that, I would be in the complete wrong job. Anybody who thinks like that should not be involved in competitive sports as far as I am concerned.
“I want the team to be competitive on the field and I want to try to make them as successful as I possibly can.”
Twenty points from safety, it is a challenge that McLaren is embracing in his first manager’s job.
The 29-year-old has a wealth of previous experience, starting out at Tranent Colts and Longniddry Villa.
Since then, he has also been involved at Ormiston Primrose, Easthouses Lily and Peebles Rovers in the EoSFL, as well as Hearts Women.
He said: “It is my first managerial role at this level but I have coached for a number of years now.
“I have had managerial, had coaching experience, years prior to this.”
McLaren, who grew up in Tranent and now lives in Port Seton, took the job after former Haddington Athletic striker Joe Murray resigned following last weekend’s 10-2 thumping from Musselburgh Athletic.
He said of Vale’s struggles this season: “It’s been tough, it has certainly been tough.
“It is one of those things where we have got clubs coming up with budgets that are three or four times the size of ours.
“That is always hard to compete with – it does not matter what club you are.
“Last season, we only won one game in the Lowland League and we had Rangers and Celtic B teams. Budget wise, we cannot financially compete with these teams.”
McLaren, who works in financial services, took charge for the first time on Saturday, when his side travelled to Haddington Athletic. The Hi Hi would emerge 2-0 winners thanks to second-half goals from Guy McGarry.
He said: “I thought the boys stuck to the game plan in the first half and frustrated Haddington.
“We could have scored but the defender did well to head away from Craig Brand.
“Unfortunately, the first goal we did not follow our runner and the second goal we lost the ball in a crucial area of the pitch.
“[There are] positives to take, though, as shape was better and the boys competed.”
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