Outgoing Strathspey Thistle manager Gordon Nicolson feels strong foundations have been laid at Seafield Park ahead of next season.
Nicolson stepped down last week, having recently taken up a coaching position within Caley Thistle’s youth setup.
It ends his five-year association with the Jags, having previously been assistant to Ally Munro before becoming manager in 2018.
Nicolson’s number two Tommy Wilson will also depart the club, with Thistle now searching for a new management team.
Having overseen Strathspey’s highest points tally in his first season in charge, Nicolson’s side were 13th when the 2019-20 campaign was curtailed due to Covid-19.
Building blocks in place for successor
Although the Jags did not play a league game last season prior to the campaign being cut short, Nicolson feels the building blocks are firmly in place for his successor.
Nicolson said: “Once the season was confirmed as finished we started making plans straight away.
“We’ve got six pre-season games, and we got guys that were out of contract signed again.
“The squad we developed at Strathspey, between Tommy and myself, there is a great young team there.
“I was gutted we never really got the opportunity to get those players out on the park last year.
“We retained that squad and I would like to see them go on and do very well under the new management team – whoever that may be.”
Breakthrough of young players
Nicolson is encouraged with the breakthrough of a number of young players to augment the experience already at the club, and he added: “We’ve got guys like Kieran Chalmers who is just a young player but he’s got good experience in the league now over a couple of seasons.
“Ashley Ballam is the same, he’s just a young player in his very early 20s.
“We got a young Craig MacKenzie from Ross County at the start of last season, who was brilliant in training and the friendlies we did get to play.
“We have very high hopes for Craig, he’s a very good young player.
“Added to the more senior guys we had already, I felt we had a very good blend of players.
Nicolson reflects on his final season with frustration, with the Grantown outfit having played just one competitive game.
Nicolson added: “We just played Buckie in the Scottish Cup. All the league games for one reason or another just never happened.
“We started back at the beginning of September for an October start, but we just never got out of the blocks.
“We were in that pre-season mode, then the first game against Fort William never happened which unfortunately set the tone for the rest of our season.”
