Stefan Laird

Highland News & Media

Introduction to Elgin City’s new assistant manager Stefan Laird

Transcript

00:00 We're delighted to be here.

00:02 It's going to be an exciting time,

00:03 hopefully for us and the club,

00:05 and we're looking forward to getting started.

00:07 It's been fantastic, to be honest,

00:08 with a really good few years,

00:09 and we've done really, really well,

00:11 and built a great group there,

00:12 and had some really good achievements.

00:15 But such as football,

00:16 that's obviously got us an opportunity,

00:18 and looking forward to pursuing that now,

00:20 and hopefully recreating some of that with Elgin.

00:24 Yeah, so I played down in Glasgow,

00:26 from Greenock, just outside Glasgow,

00:27 and then moved to a wee place called Kilmarnock,

00:30 when I was in the Rangers Academy,

00:32 14 to 16,

00:33 and then ended up going down to Plough Blackpool full-time,

00:36 and I was there for three years.

00:39 Normal football story, lots of injuries,

00:41 too many, and ended up following up coaching,

00:44 and was coaching at Greenock Morton,

00:46 when they were under 20,

00:47 before I came up to Aberdeen to further my education,

00:50 and done the Aberdeen Academy and community,

00:53 and then in with the women,

00:54 and then dragged back into the senior game with Alan,

00:57 which is where I'm desperate to try and succeed,

01:00 and we're looking forward to the challenge.

01:02 Young in age, but certainly not young in coaching hours.

01:05 Been coaching a long time,

01:06 and been a full-time coach now for 10 years,

01:10 which seems a really long time,

01:12 saying that now.

01:13 Yeah, we've got our own methods.

01:15 Some of them will be different

01:16 to what maybe the players are used to,

01:17 and some of them won't be,

01:18 but it's just about finding the little tweaks,

01:20 where we can get the best out of the group here,

01:22 and Alan spoke to everybody,

01:23 and I'm looking forward to meeting them,

01:24 and we've got a really good bunch of guys,

01:26 and we're looking forward to getting started,

01:28 and hopefully getting some victories in the North.

01:30 You've got to be honest, it's very, very difficult,

01:31 especially geographically for the clubs in the North,

01:33 in terms of recruitment.

01:35 The clubs in the central belt have got a massive pool

01:39 of players and sponsors and all that kind of stuff.

01:41 The Elgar have succeeded,

01:42 survived a long time at this level,

01:45 and we'll be trying to push them as high as we can.

01:47 Obviously, the first thing is to stay in the lead again,

01:50 and then look to try and build week on week from there,

01:52 and see how far we can go.

01:53 It's not a big jump up to the playoffs,

01:56 so that's what you've got to aim for,

01:57 but the number one priority, obviously,

01:58 is you've got to stay in the division first and foremost.

02:00 Yeah, no, my partner's been thrilled,

02:01 yet she's been watching East Fife for the last few days,

02:05 so no, we'll get plenty of homework done.

02:07 If there's one thing about myself and the managers,

02:09 we'll be well-prepared,

02:10 and certainly we'll do our work,

02:11 'cause in the manager's office, that's for certain.

02:14 So we'll just try and put the players in the best position

02:16 they possibly can to succeed,

02:18 but as everybody knows,

02:19 we don't know what's going to happen on a Saturday

02:20 with all the different variables,

02:21 but we'll be ready.

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