Allan Maitland is well versed in Second Division football, having won the title with Clyde in season 1999/2000 and leading Hamilton Academical out of the division four years later not to mention coming within a goal of doing likewise with Alloa just 15 months ago.
The disappointment of losing out to neighbours Stirling Albion in May, 2010 cast a shadow over Maitland’s Alloa side last season and he left the club after they found themselves in the relegation Play-Off position after the 36 game League season.
Maitland has enjoyed a summer free of football for the first time in six years however, with the three divisions of the IRN-BRU SFL Championship about to get up and running across the country, Maitland’s feet are beginning to get a wee bit itchy about being involved in the game and he was delighted to look ahead to this season’s campaign.
Here is his assessment of the ten sides that will fight it out:-
"Airdrie United – Jimmy Boyle did really well last season particularly in the second half of the campaign and in David Lilley, Derek Holmes and Chris Malone, they have made great signings.
In John Boyle, they have made a very interesting signing as I am looking forward to see how he gets on after stepping up from Auchinleck Talbot.
Airdrie will have been boosted by their 5-0 win over Stirling Albion in The Scottish Communities Cup last weekend and I have no doubts that they will do well and do not have to worry about relegation which is probably different to how they felt when they started last season.
They have a good group of young players, who are now a year more experienced so they are in much better shape to challenge up the way this time out. They will be solid, in particular at home, and it would not surprise me to see them in a top four position.
Albion Rovers – Andy Scott, the former Alloa signing, has joined them as has Mick O’Byrne and Ryan McStay and they are all good signings. Joseph Acquah could turn out to be a big hit but I noticed that the bookmakers have tipped them to be in a relegation fight and I agree.
Albion are traditionally a team that have been fighting things out in the Third Division so you have to say that Paul Martin has done a great job there but this will be a hard season for them because on paper, their squad lacks pace. In saying that, it is the group of players I know least about so they may well surprise me.
It was a great achievement to be promoted and it would be a great achievement to stay up but it will be a struggle to stay out of the bottom two.
Arbroath – Their Player/Manager Paul Sheerin is the key to them on and off the park. He has brought in some new players who have improved the squad such as Lee Bryce from Raith Rovers as well as Graham Girvan from Clyde and the vastly experienced Brian Kerr.
Darren Hill, Stuart Malcolm, Gavin Swankie and Steven Doris know the club well but the more Paul plays for them, the better they will be, as he is a calming influence on the pitch.
Home points will be precious in the Second Division and Arbroath are helped by having a fairly unique venue due to the wind that is always blowing there. If they play that right, it may see them pick up important points.
Swankie and Doris need to score and they will learn quickly that the Second Division is harder to score in than the Third Division and if they find the net, they will avoid relegation but they are in line for a bottom half finish.
They lost heavily at Livingston last Saturday and had Doris sent off and they will need to bounce back from that disappointment quickly.
Brechin City – Looking at their team, I was really surprised to see that they lost to Clyde last weekend. They were also defeated by Falkirk the weekend before and to lose two in a row was not the start people would have predicted for Brechin.
Losing Rory McAllister could be massive to Brechin because if you take his goals and his assists out of their team from last season, it leaves a huge gap. Strikers of that ilk are very difficult to replace although Jim Weir has made good signings.
I expect Paul McManus to do well and if Derek Carcary gets flying consistently, he will be a real threat when they attack. I know David McClune, Mick Dunlop, Scott Buist and Jim Lister well as they are former Alloa players and will add value however, Jim needs an operation before people will see the best of him. When he is fit, he will be part of a great double act with either McManus or David McKenna.
The established guys like Craig Nelson, Big Gerry McLauchlan, Charlie King and Craig Molloy will all be key players as will new boys Garry Brady and Graham Weir.
Jim and Kevin McGowne have a history of doing well and I believe that Brechin will be challenging for the League but they will have to get over the Clyde game quickly to make an impact
Cowdenbeath – They have an interesting season ahead as the teams that come down to the Second Division are usually expected to go straight back up and I am sure Colin Cameron knows that. Cowdenbeath had a great pre-season and I do not think that losing to Stenhousemuir in a penalty shoot-out will worry them too much.
John Armstrong, Dene Droudge, Scott Linton (who I think is a right good prospect), Joe Mbu, Colin himself and Lee Makel are all key players however, I think that keeping Jon Robertson fit can be the key for them.
If he can avoid injuries, they will have a better season than they will have if he is not in the team. Mark Ramsay scored twice last weekend and that bodes well and I believe that Cowdenbeath are the other side that will challenge for the title.
It is between them and Brechin although I do expect a dark horse to emerge.
Dumbarton – The Sons have recast their squad with new faces such as Alan Lithgow, Kevin Nicol, Scott Agnew, Jamie Ewings, Martin McBride, Bryan Prunty, Graeme Ramage and Ryan Borris all coming on board however, I don’t think any of them will make up for the loss of Jon McShane going back to St. Mirren at the end of his loan period.
Pat Walker and McShane up front were a great big guy, wee guy combination who both held the ball up well. Bryan Prunty is a different type of player and he will have been delighted to have got off the mark against East Stirling the other week.
Ben Gordon was a big player for them and he has moved on to Alloa but Lithgow is a good replacement for him although they will miss Nicky Devlin who played so well at full-back that Motherwell signed him and I think Ryan McStay’s ability to hold the ball will be missed as well.
It will be important they do not lose as many goals as they did last season as the threat of Derek Carcary, who managed to get them back into games, has moved on to Brechin but I have to say that Alan Adamson has done brilliantly since going in there last season as they were in relegation trouble until he went in.
Their season could go either way but I think they will do okay and I will opt for a mid-table finish.
East Fife – They are the team that could surprise everyone – true dark horses after a fine second half of last season. Stevie Hyslop will increase their chances if he can stay fit and Ryan Wallace, who I had a look at Alloa, is another goal-grabber for East Fife.
I thought Ryan was too similar to other strikers I had at the club and that looks to have been a mistake on my part. John Robertson will use his contacts at Hearts and elsewhere to get good young players in and he has signed some good experienced ones as well with Scott Dalziel, Darren Smith, Andy Cook and David White all improving the quality of the East Fife squad.
Whilst I like what John has done to his squad, the star man was already there in the shape of Bobby Linn. He is a really important player to them and is usually at the centre of everything and having Bobby linking things up allows East Fife to play at a great pace.
They have a good squad and I would not be surprised if they emerged as the strongest challengers outside of Brechin and Cowdenbeath.
Forfar Athletic – In Dick Campbell and his brother Ian, Forfar have two very experienced guys and two very good Managers. They did better last season than expected and they will be looking to secure a Play-Off spot again although I feel that will be more difficult to do this time out.
They are not the surprise package they were last season and in losing Dale Hilson and Bryan Deasley, I believe a lot of pace has gone out of their team. In saying that, Craig Wilson from Raith Rovers has the potential to be a great signing, Mark McCulloch will keep things tight at the back and Kevin Motion along with Kevin Byers will do well in midfield however, the key to Forfar lies up front. If Ross Campbell and Chris Templeman get their eye in quickly in front of goal, that will help Forfar’s season enormously.
They handled the travelling they had to do well last season and they will welcome Arbroath to the Second Division as that is a shorter trip than others and it was interesting that they saw off Peterhead quite convincingly last weekend at Station Park. That was a game that I thought would be very close and the manner they did that in makes me think that Forfar will have a great home record.
I am not entirely sure where they will end up but it will not be top two or bottom two but it will be close to if not in the top four.
Stenhousemuir – They did fabulously well to stay up last season and have added great experience in Kevin McKinlay, Stewart Kean, Paul McHale, Andy Rodgers and Brown Ferguson as well as keeping hold of Eric Paton although losing Grant Anderson to Hamilton is a blow. He gave Stenhousemuir a more than decent option on the right and he did really well in his first season in senior football.
I will be interested to see how David Irons compiles his side as a lot of the players he brought in are similar to Paton, McHale and Ferguson and can all play central midfield so I am not sure how he is going to fit them all into his side.
Winning at Cowdenbeath will have been great for them last weekend and no doubt Willie Lyle was celebrating his one goal in every five seasons wildly! A good defender but he is not known for his goalscorong.
Kean will score goals and with the squad that has been assembled, they have the experience to do well but I am not sure how good they will be defensively so Martyn Corrigan’s role will be crucial.
Their squad last season was very different and they will see the top four as a realistic ambition and then try to secure promotion via the Play-Offs but I feel there are stronger teams. David Irons has done really well since coming in and I do not feel that he will have to pull off a rescue act this season.
Stirling Albion – A really good experienced Manager in Jocky Scott will help them to a great extent in this division especially as he is backed by another experienced campaigner in John Blackley.
Bringing in the highly rated Alan Cook for Dumbarton is a real coup and a bit of a surprise as I rated him really highly. Marc McCulloch will add value as will Gary Thom and the goalkeeper Sam Filler and John Crawley came through their trial system but I don’t think many people know what they are going to get from Stirling this season.
I think it could be a struggle for them, as no matter what division you are in, money talks and there does not appear to be much there and it could be another tough season with the main aim being that the club continues without going into debt.
They will not want to drop divisions in successive seasons but I see a relegation dog fight ahead and whilst they beat Deveronvale in a tough cup tie in The Ramsdens Cup, losing to Airdrie heavily in The Scottish Communities League Cup was a poor day.
Jocky is going to have to rely on experienced players like Shaun Fagan and having him sent off last week will not have helped."
Summary:
The former Recreation Park boss finished off by offering his summary of the season ahead in the Second Division by saying: "East Fife are the dark horses with Brechin City and Cowdenbeath the favourites and at the other end of the table, I see Albion Rovers, Stirling Albion and possibly Arbroath fighting it out. The rest will in my view, contend for a promotion Play-Off place."
Maitland will watch how the season progresses with interest and confident in the knowledge that should he ever return to the game, the club that employ him will be getting a better Manager after his experiences as Alloa moved from promotion candidates to a relegated side.
He said: “It has been a very relaxing couple of months for me as it has been the first summer in a long time where the 'phone has not gone all the time and I have not been going out four nights a week to look at players and take in games.
“That does not include the work you do at weekends, so I have enjoyed having some more time to myself. I have only been to see one game since I left Alloa and that was a Largs Thistle versus Hamilton Accies friendly so you could say I have almost taken a clean break.”
Maitland added: “I am still enjoying having more time to myself but with the new season starting, my interest in football is rising again and come the autumn, I will no doubt be looking to immerse myself in it again.”
Last season’s fall from grace for Maitland and the Recreation Park side was not forecast and having taken time during the summer to get over his disappointment, the unpredictable nature of life as a football Manager was emphasised once more.
As Maitland settled down to chat about next season’s Second Division, he received a text to say that Jim Jefferies was leaving Heart of Midlothian and he said: “I did not see that coming.”
Maitland believes he knows where it went wrong last season and any club that hires him in the future will be getting a stronger Manager as a result as he explained: “There was definitely a hangover after Stirling pipped us for the Second Division Championship in season 2009/10 by the smallest of margins and I believed I was bringing in players that would take us up last season despite that.
“I brought in guys that had been full-time however, when Livingston hit the front in the League, that approach turned out to be wrong. The players I had brought in had been at clubs that were struggling in the First Division and motivation became an issue. If we went a goal down, the guys had become used to not getting back into games and that is how our season went.”
Lessons have been learnt by Maitland who added: “It was a difficult season but I learnt more about management in that one season than during any other season in my career.
“If I ever come back, I will be a better Manager for it.”
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