Sir Alex's move to Boardroom has similar tone to Hampden switch at his first ever club

Whilst Queen’s Park’s most famous former player, Sir Alex Ferguson’s decision to move from the Manager’s Office to the Boardroom at the end of the season made worldwide headlines, a transfer of a similar nature is also happening at Ferguson’s first footballing home.

Ferguson made his debut as a 15 year old for the Spiders back in November, 1958 and, nearly 55 years later, the Third Division amateur side are still promoting youth as 30-year-old club captain Richard Sinclair is making the move from the dressing room to the Boardroom.

Sinclair has agreed to become the youngest ever member of the Committee that run Scotland’s oldest football club where Sir Alex was recently honoured by becoming the first former Spider who had moved on to play professionally to be given Life Membership of the club.

The defender has been with the Spiders for 14 seasons as player, however a combination of becoming a dad for the first time, running his own business, coaching, as well as a niggling ankle injury has seen his playing appearances restricted to reserve games only this season.

The former Scotland Schoolboy captain did not want things to fade away at a club he cares about and when the opportunity came up for a new role he snapped it up.

Sinclair said: “I have been told that I will be the youngest committee member in our history and when you consider that our club goes back to 1867 it is quite an honour. With the way my life away from football was growing, with my baby boy Adam and my plumbing business in Netherlee, it was becoming more and more difficult to concentrate on playing at a first team level.”

“I still wanted to be involved in football at Queen’s Park as they have given me a lot over the years and I would like to think I have given them a lot as well. My boots are not hung up, they have just been put slightly further back in my drawer.”

“I have had some great times here with two promotions and a win over Aberdeen as well as playing at Parkhead and Ibrox so I am in no rush to say that I will not play again.”

Sinclair reckons that the move will help him learn more about his club as he said: “This move allows me to get involved in seeing how the club runs in a very different way. It is a fantastic opportunity as I have only seen things through a player and coaches eyes. This will be very different.”

“I have had a taste of some of the issues that a business has with things like dealing with safety regulations, however this will be on a much larger scale.”

Sinclair is hoping that his role will strengthen the relationship between the Hampden players and their committee as he explained: “I have been here for nearly 15 years and came through the youths and the reserve team before becoming first team captain. I would like to think I will always be there for the players especially as our squad has been together for a number of years now.  I know them all well.”

“Hopefully I can be a link between the Committee and the players as I know that sometimes they are seen as being on different sides. It has been them and us at times but we are all the one club and need each other. Hopefully I will encourage others to get involved in the future.”

Sinclair added: “Whilst a link is a good term for just now it will evolve over the years when players change and I don’t know them as well as I do just now. Maybe then some other player can step up.”

“A former team-mate of mine, Ross Caven is the Club President just now. He joined the Board after playing here for 20 years when he was in his mid-thirties so I going in a bit ahead of him. I cannot wait to get started and this is a life changing thing for me.”

“I will keep my fitness levels high but family and work commitments will dictate whether I get the boots out again and hopefully this move will fill any void that not playing could create.”

As for coaching next season Sinclair said: “We finished third in the SFL Reserve League and are doing well in the Reserve League Cup. Billy Ogilvie who runs that team has been great in educating me as has our first team coach Gardner Speirs. A lot of the boys have stepped up to the first team which is great to see and there is more to come.”

The Spiders of course take on Peterhead this weekend in the second leg of the IRN-BRU SFL Second Division Play-Offs and trail 1-0.

Sinclair said: “I was part of the squad that won through the Play-Offs in 2007. Stuart Kettlewell was a great skipper that year and I think that only Frankie Carroll and I are the only two players to have been promoted twice with Queen’s Park.

“Our recent record in the Play-Offs has not been great but hopefully the guys have learnt from those experiences. We always play good football but hopefully this time we can show the steely edge required to get through.”