Game on for new team at the top

Nov 30 2007

THE new-look management team charged with taking Saints forward to 2010 got down to hard graft at McDiarmid Park yesterday.

Player manager Derek McInnes, appointed on Tuesday, wasted no time in luring highly-regarded coach Tony Docherty from Dundee United to fill the assistant manager slot.

The pair worked together closely at Tannadice, having both been lured to United when Ian McCall was manager. McInnes was installed as club captain after arriving from West Brom. Ironically, they will debut tomorrow at Firhill against a Partick Thistle side with their former boss at the helm.

McInnes said: “I’m delighted to get Tony here as my assistant and pleased it has happened so quickly. That is down to the chairman Geoff Brown, and Dundee United being co-operative.

“I don’t necessarily go along with the idea you need an old hand beside you. It was important to get someone in and Tony is a close friend and someone I trust. The boys here will enjoy working under him. I had the experience of working with Tony at close quarters and we have talked football every week since I left United. He is a top coach and knows the game inside out. Tony will be a massive help in taking the club forward.”

The manager is adamant that Docherty – also 36 – has amassed experience beyond his own tender years over the past decade.

Docherty gained a foothold with an SFA community role at Falkirk before being promoted under Alex Totten. McCall kept Docherty in the Brockville inner sanctum before taking him to Tannadice. As first team coach, he has been credited with nurturing the current crop of Tannadice kids breaking into the first team.

Docherty said: “I was at United for nearly five years but I’m coming to a team which has just won a cup and in a decent position to challenge for the title. Derek and I have been pretty close but I regard it as an honour to be asked to come here and be an assistant manager to a player I once coached. I’ve dropped a division but personally I see this as promotion. It would have been hard to resist Derek’s offer.

“Hopefully we can complement each other. I believe I’ve served my apprenticeship over the years and I had a taste of being an assistant with Gordon Chisholm. I went to Tannadice from Falkirk with Ian, Chis and, of course, Owen Coyle. ”

McInnes is eagerly counting down to his first match in charge, just seven days after skippering Saints to the Challenge Cup final with a stand-out midfield display.

He’s ready to reduce his game time with Martin Hardie working his way back into contention and teenager Kevin Moon highly regarded. But the new manager is set to pull on a strip tomorrow and unveil a new captain for the clash with Thistle.

“I’ll take every game as it comes but it can be difficult being a player and a manager. I’ve still to make my mind up for Saturday. I will play if it’s in the best interests of the team. But I will take a step back if others are more than capable of doing a job. I will train every day and play reserve team football to have an influence on the younger players. But looking ahead if I have a fully fit squad I’d imagine I won’t play.”

Earlier in the week, the ambitious manager mapped out his football philosophy, noting: “I could never see my future without football and I did my first coaching licence in my early twenties. I realise this is a great opportunity I'm being given. I believe it's important the club has shown confidence in a young manager with the length of the contract I have been given.

"I can assure the fans I will work long and hard and put in all the hours to make myself and this club a success. The ultimate aim here is the Premier League and I know that's where I'll be judged. That is