When Albion Rovers Manager Paul Martin says that if his side does not win the Third Division Championship this season, then he wants to take them even closer to the end of season Play-Offs! What he really means is that he wants the Coatbridge club in the end of season scramble as they cannot go any closer than they did back in May.
Only one goal saw Queen’s Park pip the Rovers and going any closer this time means qualification with Martin’s men making history by reaching the Play-Offs for the first time.
To bolster his side’s attempt to achieve this, Martin has overhauled his squad, with eight players leaving or retiring, one leaving and coming back, one joining and leaving, as well as eight new faces coming on board. To add to the changes, a signing from last season has put injury problems behind him and is being hailed as a new player.
Martin talked through the changes starting with the players that will not be donning Rovers’ colours this season:-
“Jamie Ewings – We simply could not afford to keep Jamie, which is a pity as he is a really good goalkeeper, and it is no surprise that he has joined Second Division Alloa. I had to sacrifice Jamie to free up funds to allow us to become stronger in other areas most notably in the middle to front positions. Times are hard financially for clubs just now and I have sometimes joked with prospective players that we are Albion Rovers not Blackburn Rovers!
Steven McKeown – Great pedigree as you would expect from a guy that started his career at Leeds United. He has now joined Arthurlie Juniors.
Mark Canning - Mark’s career shows you what a funny business football can be. Two years ago he won a record number of Player of the Year Trophies with Dumbarton, a year ago he had a Third Division Championship medal from there as well and now he is playing amateur football.
David McFarlane – We were top of the League after the first quarter of games last season and David McFarlane was a major factor in that. He had a tough time with injuries and told us that he wanted to retire. We kept the door open for him. However he went on holiday and even two weeks of constant sunshine did not help his aches so he has decided to call it a day. A big miss, as on form he was a really good player for us.
Pat Walker – A great servant to Albion Rovers, who scored for fun in his first stint with us. Pat has joined Annan and I wish him well apart from when he plays against Albion Rovers.
Paul Tyrrell – He has told us he wants to retire and has not featured this season. Paul still comes in to train and we are hoping that he gets itchy feet about playing again. A great captain, a real leader on the pitch and a player we badly miss. I can understand the reasons why he has stopped playing but I would love him to get fully fit again and say he wanted to give it another go.
Mick O’Byrne – A brilliant move for Mick to Livingston and full-time football. I am delighted things have worked out that way, as that was part of my sales pitch to him about coming here after being released by Dumbarton. He had started off at Dundee United and then Dunfermline and I told him that we would get him back to full-time football. We gave him a platform to help resurrect his career and he took it. Players will always leave you but if they leave for full-time football, it is great for us and for them. A good guy and I really hope things work out for him in the Second Division.
Marc McCusker – I was really disappointed when he left us during the summer and I feel if he had been a bit more patient, he would maybe have got a full-time gig as well. Marc felt he had unfinished business at Clyde and they are favourites for the League so that may have swayed his mind. We worked hard on his fitness and confidence, and you can see by the way he has started the season why I was always saying he will be the best young striker in the lower divisions.”
Martin continued, “In summary, I would have loved to have kept these guys but I had to reduce the squad for financial reasons and some of them had also made their own mind up about moving on. I was also of the opinion that we did not score enough goals last season and I had to create space in the squad to address that.”
One player went out and then came back in with Martin explaining, “Paul McLeod left us during the summer as we could not offer him a new deal. However, the first minute I knew that Marc was leaving, I was straight on the phone to bring Paul back and delighted that he has started the season well and scoring goals.”
Nine new faces were brought in to Cliftonhill and Martin introduced them as follows:-
“Anton Nugent – I brought Anton on board as a back up goalkeeper that will keep Derek Gaston on his toes. He is a good experienced goalkeeper that has played for Dumbarton and a number of Junior clubs. He was originally a short term signing however, he has now signed with us until the end of the season.
Steven Greenlees – He caught our eye playing at amateur level but he has still got a lot to learn about football at this level. We are hoping that he learns quickly so he can push for a place.
Steven Canning – He was a young player with me when I was a player at Queen’s Park a decade ago and he held down a first team place there when he was 17. He was here a couple of seasons ago on loan from Brechin City and came back because he wanted to play regularly. Steven showed his desire to play football by coming here for smaller wages than he could get elsewhere and he has done well but can produce more for us.
Tony Stevenson – Tony has been terrific for Albion Rovers and he has worked hard on his fitness since missing out on pre-season training after leaving Hamilton. Two years ago, he scored Hamilton’s first ever goal in the SPL however, his career has stalled since then. I would love him to stay longer than a month because he will have a platform here to build his career back up for seasons to come in the same manner that Mick O’Byrne has.
John Gemmell – A player we know really well after a previous spell at Cliftonhill although first of all, we need to get him fully fit after a back injury. He will be looking to put a disappointing season where he did not score enough goals for Montrose behind him.
Robert Love – Joined us from Stenhousemuir and disproving the theory that you need to be a big striker in the Third Division to do well. We have scored in four of the five games this season when Robert has played where he thinks he should play and long may that continue.
Chris Hamilton – Scored both goals against his former club Queen’s Park at the weekend in our 2-1 win and he has done everything that he has been asked to do. Chris did not feature as often for Queen’s Park as he would have liked but they got to the Play-Offs and you cannot really argue against that. He wants to play and enjoys playing and two goals every week will not do him any harm in terms of playing regularly at the Rovers.
Iain Smith –Iain is a story worthy of a Boys Own book as he has turned senior last month for the first time aged 31 and scored twice despite playing only 27 minutes over two games. Great shape physically, a strong hungry player with a lot of ability. I brought Ian in for a month and have now signed him for the year and I must thank my old friend Jamie McKenzie for finding him.”
One player of the nine that came in but looks set to move out again fairly quickly is Darren Dalrymple, with Martin saying, “Darren joined us from Kilsyth Rangers in the summer but the move has not worked out despite Darren looking tremendous in pre-season. He had a poor debut at Queen of the South and that has affected his confidence. We have tried to rebuild his confidence but he wants to go back to the Juniors and that may happen soon.”
Albion Rovers also have a player that falls into the ‘Like a New Signing’ category with Martin looking forward to having his Player/Assistant Manager, Todd Lumsden, available for the campaign. He explained, “Having Todd available feels like a new signing as he missed so much of his first season due to an ankle injury. Todd came back in last year, when we were on a run of 10 games without a win, and he helped roll that stone away with a win at Annan. In my opinion, he is the best centre half in the Second and Third Divisions and will be a key asset for us on and off the park.”
The spirit at the club has remained strong despite the summer upheavals with Martin explaining, “I thought the dressing room was good last season but it is even better this time out.
“Last season we were quite pragmatic in our play at times whereas I reckon we will be a bit more off the cuff this time out and the players enjoy that.
“They will work with each other as we don’t need individuality all the time but when it is required, I believe we now have the players to do it.”
Martin added, “We have a mix of experienced and inexperienced players. However football is a strange game as we are playing better football this season but have not picked up as many points as we did last term after three games.”
The Coatbridge side do have some areas to work on with Martin adding, “The squad needs to be a bit stronger as things happen as we saw last weekend with Chris Boyle being injured. He will be missing for the next six weeks due to a hamstring injury and we have the bodies to cope with situations like that.
“We are losing a few late goals which is also a concern. Our fitness levels are fine so it may well be that we need to work on our concentration.”
Rovers 2009/2010 League campaign started like a house on fire as they topped the table after nine games only to slip to seventh spot come March, with a late rally seeing them almost sneak into the final Play-Off place.
Lessons have been learned with Martin advising, “The team that wins this division will be the one that delivers consistently week in and week out and our plan this season is to be in the top half all season. There is not a full-time team like Livingston this year to stretch away so if we keep in touch with the leaders, we will be there or there abouts.
“For too long, this club has challenged at the wrong end of the table so we want to make it another year of challenging at the correct end.”
So will the Play-Offs be stopping at Cliftonhill for the first time ever?
Martin replied, “We cannot get any closer than we did last season so we know exactly how to define progress this time out.
“If we are one or two places away from top spot come March, I will be confident that we are well placed to mount a serious challenge and that would be excellent.”
