Moore shaping the way ahead

May 1 2009

STIRLING Albion manager Allan Moore is due to meet chairman Peter McKenzie in the next few days to discuss his own future and that of his players.

Moore, who has been in charge of the Binos since May 2002 and is Scotland’s second-longest serving current boss after Jim Jefferies at Kilmarnock, is out of contract in the summer, as are the majority of his squad.

Under the former Hearts and St Johnstone winger, Albion have twice been promoted and played Division One football for the first time in a decade but fell short of the play-offs this time round and Saturday’s 1-1 draw at Peterhead ended their top-four hopes.

With the club still up for sale it is unclear what budget will be available for the 2009-10 campaign, which is likely to start at the end of July, but Moore is keen to make plans as soon as possible.

He said: “I spoke to the chairman briefly at training on Tuesday night and I’m going to meet him again soon so there’s not much to report at the moment. I already have a few players in mind that I would like to bring here but I don’t know what the financial situation is.

“There will be a few players leaving because you always need to freshen things up. Having looked a lot of the teams in the Second Division I think one area we need to strengthen is the centre of defence because we lack physical presence.

“The midfield is another area we have to look at because we have relied on the likes of John O’Neill, Paul Murphy and Mark Docherty in every game. I would certainly be very keen to bring Ryan McCord from Dundee United on loan again if that was a possibility.”

Albion are away to East Fife tomorrow (Saturday) and finish up at home to bogey team Queen’s Park on May 9 and Moore has confirmed that he will give some of the younger players a chance to impress – starting with this weekend’s trip to Methil.

The Fife club had high hopes of promotion after spending big in the summer but have suffered a poor season and are six points behind Stirling in the table, having taken only one point out of nine against the Binos this term.

Dave Baikie recently left the New Bayview outfit and Stevie Crawford was this week confirmed as the new manager, with ex-Falkirk and Hearts striker Scott Crabbe his No 2. The Fifers will be without Division Two Player of the Year nominee Bobby Linn, who is suspended after being sent off in the 2-0 defeat at Ayr.

Moore is keen to end the season on a high.

He said: “We’ll make a few changes for the last couple of games but we want to win them and get as many points as possible. The likes of Liam Corr and Jonny Boyle will come into contention and there are others in the U19 side who might get a chance. Martin Grehan is suspended and Michael Mullen has been struggling with a groin problem.

“It was disappointing that we didn’t manage to keep things alive by beating Peterhead but the game summed up our season really. Martin Grehan and Chris Hamilton had good chances to win the game and we have missed too many opportunities like that. The goal they got came from a free-kick that should have gone to us and I had a feeling they were going to score it.”