The only way is up for Edinburgh City manager Michael McIndoe

Edinburgh City manager Michael McIndoe

The Meadowbank outfit currently occupy mid-table in Scottish football's fourth tier, moving up one place earlier this week after the SPFL deducted Bonnyrigg Rose six points for a rule breach regarding the gradient of their pitch.

Back-to-back victories over Forfar and Clyde has seen the Citizens close the gap on fourth-placed Stirling Albion to four points - a position boss McIndoe says he is far from happy about.

The former Bristol City, Doncaster and Coventry midfielder won't rest on his laurels. Mediocrity isn't welcome within the dressing room.

And while some might consider his title-winning aspirations a tad premature given the club is still very much in recovery mode following a summer rebuild on and off the park, McIndoe insists he's deadly serious.

"My job is to get this club into the Championship," he told the Evening News. "I will not sit here and be like other managers and not have pressure. I want more pressure. You need pressure to bring the best out of yourself.

"I will give myself no credit until I win League Two and then League One. Only then I might pat myself on the back. I am very critical of myself so until we achieve those goals, at no point will I rest.

"It has to be the focus and objective. I did okay in the English game but I've done absolutely nothing up here. We're happy with the progress having won four in our last six in all competitions and the performances have been good. We've worked hard in making the players a bit more steely in their approach and making them aware of the moments in games when other teams are vulnerable, so we're going in the right direction.

"This team has been together for just over four months so that is absolutely no time in football. We're top of the charts in a lot of things like possession. The overall assessment is we're doing okay. We're not happy being fifth in the league, of course we're not. "We threw points away at Elgin and Clyde but I'm looking forward to the next four or five games we've got coming up. But we're reducing the amount of goals going in, our goal difference is getting better, we're moving up the table so teams we play will definitely fear us next time around.

"When you look at a league table, you only look at one position and that's the top. Last week we were 11 points off the top before kick-off, now we're only nine and we play Peterhead and East Fife in the next two games. If you're going to win a league, you have to beat the teams at the top.

"We're going to lose games, we're not stupid. But we want to try and bring a different brand to Scottish football. It's high-risk but you have to take that risk or it doesn't work. You have to leave your mark on the opposition, players and manager alike."

City travel north this weekend to take on table-toppers the Blue Toon in buoyant mood. McIndoe is confident his players are becoming more accustomed to his philosophy by the week.

"I'm still a scholar of the game," he explained. "I'm learning and watching multiple games from different countries on a weekly basis. I believe in my ability to coach and develop any footballer of any age and that is only because I've been lucky and blessed enough to have had some of the best English brains coaching-wise as well as several international managers who I played for teach me.

"I did listen a lot as a player and write things down. Man-management for me is one of the most important things. I'm pretty sure we've got the smallest budget in the SPFL but that doesn't matter. The players believe in the system and it's extremely powerful. Everyone of my players goes out believing they are the best in that position in League Two.

"We do a lot of different things, a lot of it comes from Amercia and the NFL. We do play with the players' heads some times but in a good way. A lot of innovation and trial and error. When you see a team score, look at the bench. You'll quickly find out if that group is together. When we score, I've got subs running 60 yards along the touchline celebrating with their team-mates and this is what we're trying to create.

"We need to make sure that every time we do something with the first team, the infrastructure at the club keeps progressing too.

"Slowly but surely the guys are starting to learn my way of playing because it is unorthodox to a lot of Scottish players. We also have a unique way of doing our video analysis.

"But I can see they're enjoying it. When you enjoy playing on a Saturday afternoon, that's when you get the best out of players. Coaching and recruitment is the most underrated thing in football. Connor Young scored five goals last season for Clyde, now he's sitting top goalscorer in Scottish football with ten after only 12 games."