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CHANGES REQUIRED AFTER RELEGATION PLAYOFF CONFIRMATION

Chairman Mike Mulraney spoke to the assembled press

I can confirm that Allan Maitland and James Ward will not be taking the team through the Play off’s, the team will be looked after by our two senior players – Brown Ferguson & Scott Walker, and basically we would ask the team to pull together, we think they are very well capable, we think Allan has had a great squad of guys and he has done a great job for Alloa Athletic but we just feel that the best interests of Alloa Athletic would be served by us having a change for the Play Offs, other than that, no decision has been reached other than Allan will not take us through the Play Offs, it will be Brown Ferguson & Scott Walker that look after us as a joint caretaker team and we will see next week what happens from there. Obviously I will be chatting to Allan & James next week but at this time this is where we are, there is nothing to really add to that other than Allan & James have done nothing ever than the absolute best for Alloa Athletic, that has been five and a half years of outstanding work, I can only commend them, they are great guys, but they will not be involved in the Play Off games.
We believe we have a great squad of guys, we believe something needed to change for the Play Off games and we can’t and wouldn’t want to change 16 or 20 players but we needed something to be a little bit different for hopefully the next four games, we believe that is to allow our senior players to look after the team, I have been asked already why we do not have someone parachuted in but that is basically because we told Allan he would have the 36 games to look after the team and we have not talked to anyone else, Allan Maitland is our manager and that is the bottom line, we just think in the best interest of the club will be served by trying to change something and at this point of time the only thing we can change is give someone else the chance to try and put the team out on the park. All decisions regarding the management team at Alloa Athletic are Board decisions. Allan took the decision as a gentleman, he shook my hand, wished the team all the best, obviously he was very disappointed, who wouldn’t be, he wouldn’t be the man he was if he wasn’t disappointed but he took it in the best of spirits as a gentleman and wishes us all the best, but at this time how far we are is to say Allan will not be taking the team in the Play Offs. Brown Ferguson & Scott Walker will be the caretaker manager team and they will decide whether or not they include themselves on Wednesday but that will be their decision. Hindsight is a wonderful thing and people have already asked me should we have acted earlier but I don’t regret it in as much I believe we had two great guys leading us all season, we could have changed anything and who knows what might have happened we could have got beat every single game and not finished ninth, we could have been tenth, so no I think we need to look forward and not back, we are where we are – we look forward and believe the guys who put the effort and loyalty into Alloa Athletic that Allan and James have, deserve to get their 36 games and I understand there has been a lot of pressure for us to change the manager but we did not think that was in the best interest of Alloa Athletic. The players are hugely disappointed to lose their manager – there is a lot of confidence and loyalty to the team and Allan, that’s understandable because of the guy he is but absolutely committed to assisting Brown Ferguson & Scott Walker to make sure we can play Second Division football next season. We want most of the guys to be here, we want to win to play Second Division football.