Jim McIntyre watched fellow manager Mixu Paatelainen lose his job as Dundee United lost their fight against relegation – and admits the same thing could have happened to him.
The Ross County manager, who scooped the Scottish Football Writers Association manager-of-the-year award, was in a similarly precarious position last season after taking over at the detached Dingwall club in September 2014 with the clear task of ensuring the Staggies avoided the drop against all the odds.
McIntyre, of course, has not looked back since, having led County to their first-major piece of silverware courtesy of March’s dramatic League Cup final triumph against Hibs at Hampden, but he’ll never forget the pressure he was under on being appointed manager of County. As he reflected on his well-earned prize, McIntyre conceded he might well have suffered the same fate as Finn Paatelainen did in the wake of United’s relegation from the top flight.
McIntyre said: “Staying up last season gave us the platform to do what we’ve just done.
“So, the job was two-pronged if you like. Firstly, we must stay up in order to take things a step forward.
“You only need to look at Dundee United this season to see that they didn’t manage to stay up and the manager lost his job. That could quite easily have been me. The margins are so fine and it’s important you remember that.
“So, the challenge next season is to be more consistent as getting into the top six again is going to be even harder.”
McIntyre, 43, rates County’s minor miracle of achieving survival the season before almost as highly as their recent cup success.
He said: “People had us written off when I first came in with regards to staying up. I felt the biggest success I had as a manager was keeping County up considering where we were when we took over and the squad we had when we took over.”
