New Linlithgow Rose boss Gordon Herd out to end seven-year trophy drought

Winning countless trophies as a Linlithgow Rose player was the highlight of Gordon Herd’s playing career, so he is desperate to bring in silverware as the new manager of the club.

The Prestonfield outfit are a institution which is built on success, yet they have been starved of any winners medals in recent seasons, with this their seventh year without a trophy. That is unheard of for the West Lothian club.

“I won two Super Leagues and two Scottish [Junior] Cups, I think I won about 16 or 17 trophies all in. It’s been missing,” said Herd. “I think the last trophy they won was in something like 2014, so I think we need to get that right and bring a trophy through the doors. I know the demands of the club and the supporters, so we’ll be doing our upmost to bring in some silverware to the club.

“With playing here I know how the club works and the demands that are here. The club have maybe lost their way in the last six or seven years going through a period of transition, but it was always the plan, the reason I got into management at this level was to get back to a place like Linlithgow.

“It’s been hard for the club, they’ve gone from an older committee who had been there for years and years, to a new, younger committee and sometimes that can have a bit of an effect. The club has had a few managers in this time, which doesn’t help, but the demands of the club haven’t been met by previous managers and that’s how we find ourselves in the position that we’re in. We feel we can go in and make a difference with how we go about things.”

Former striker Herd is well aware of what he’s going into alongside his management team of John Millar and Eamon Fullerton, who have joined him at Rose after being part of his backroom staff at former club Camelon, whom they left in March.

“We’ve got four boys there that we worked with at Camelon,” continued Herd ahead of his first match in the Rose hotseat at home to Banks O’ Dee in the Scottish Cup.

“It’s not the worst squad that we’ve inherited, it’s actually a really good squad, it maybe just needs a few tweaks here and there. I’ve been to watch them the last three games, so we know what we have come in to, it’s just getting the players to buy into how we want to go about things. We are well aware of what the boys can produce and what needs done.

“The place is built to succeed. We should be in the Lowland League, we are a Lowland League club, probably higher in stature, but that doesn’t give you the right to be there, we need to go and earn that, and that’s the job that we’ve been tasked with.

“We’ve got the Scottish Cup tomorrow, Tranent away on Tuesday, Broxburn at home next Saturday then East Stirling. It will be a baptism of fire and that’s the way we want it, we’ve missed that competitiveness; it’s a good test for us and the players to go and prove that they can be at Linlithgow and do a job.”

Elsewhere in Preliminary Round 1, Musselburgh Athletic visit Ayrshire to take on Irvine Meadow in what once would’ve been a mouthwatering Scottish Junior Cup fixture. Dunbar United host Broxburn in an all-East of Scotland tie, while Tynecastle and Preston will both be looking to make home advantage count against Threave Rovers and Girvan.

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