Alloa Athletic - Part Time to Legends

With the ultimate aim of the career being to take Alloa from the depths of the Scottish Championship to the heights of the Scottish Premiership and into Europe, we would first have to keep them in the division. With a predicted finish of 10th place, bottom of the Scottish Championship, and with Alloa being only a part-time team in a division full of full-time teams, this was not going to be easy.

After relegation to the bottom tier of Scottish football in 2011, former Scotland international Paul Hartley was appointed as the new manager in an attempt to immediately bounce back. The 2011-12 season saw Paul Hartley's men win the Scottish Third Division and gain promotion to the Second Division before making their way to 2nd place in this division in 2012-13. This 2nd place finish meant Alloa would gain a play-off spot in which they faced First Division side Dunfermline for a spot in the 2013-14 Scottish First Division.

The 2013-14 season saw the reconstruction of the Scottish leagues and thus there was a name change for the old First Division, meaning Alloa would be competing in the newly formed Scottish Championship. A tough season saw Paul Hartley resign as manager of the club in January 2014 following a 5-1 defeat to Dumbarton leaving Alloa in eighth place. Barry Smith took over from Hartley but he too resigned in March 2015 after defeat to Dumbarton which saw Alloa fall into the relegation play-off spot.

April 2015 saw former St Mirren boss Danny Lennon appointed as the clubs new manager on a one year deal however his stint in charge lasted just 16 games until December 2015 in which he picked up only 5 points. Alloa managed to retain their status as a Scottish Championship club for the 2015-16 season and now, I take over with the aim of doing the same and taking them further.

With a very limited budget to play with I only managed to bring in two new faces, one for free and one on loan. Given the already tight squad I decided against letting any players go.

Pre-season contained a mixed bag of results however we were remaining hopeful of staying in the division next season.

Not a great start to the season at all as we remain without a point in the league after 4 games and have been knocked out of two cup competitions already. A win in my first competitive game against Brora Rangers made me slightly more confident before we struggled past bottom tier club Queen's Park after extra time. These two wins were followed by 6 straight defeats in which there was not a single good performance to take positives from. If we are to stay in this league then the performances must improve and so too the results.

Rock bottom of the table after 4 games without a point is not the start we were hoping for however, it was never going to be easy. Hopefully performances can pick up in the coming weeks and we can begin to get some points on the board. Its going to be a battle, however it is a battle we're prepared to fight.