Caretaker manager Craig Campbell hailed the impact of departed boss Steven Mackay for turning Brora Rangers into the dominant Highland League champions they have become.
The Sutherland club endured an emotion-stirred weekend, with Mackay resigning on the back of a crushing 6-2 defeat at lethal Fraserburgh on Saturday.
In three years at the helm, Mackay guided the club to league titles in 2019/20 and 2020/21.
Tickets for tomorrow's @SPFLTrust Trophy match against @AberdeenFC B are now on sale via Fanbase at https://t.co/a7vKVR4bjE
Please note season tickets are not valid for this match due to it being in an SPFL competition. pic.twitter.com/DLPt1U9Y3g
— Brora Rangers (@brorarangers) August 9, 2021
The former was hit by Covid near the end of the campaign, with Brora well in front, while the latter came after just three completed matches amid the ongoing pandemic.
The remaining HFL clubs voted to declare them as champions to allow them to compete in the pyramid play-offs, which they lost against Kelty Hearts in May.
They made worldwide headlines before then in March when they knocked out Hearts, the previous season’s runners-up, out of the Scottish Cup in a thrilling, unforgettable night at Dudgeon Park.
The Cattachs also won the North of Scotland Cup in 2019/20, but have a thin squad at the start of this season and the manner of that defeat against the Broch convinced Mackay that there was too much work required to turn things around, given his work commitments.
The former Ross County and Nairn County player has been team-mates and coaching colleagues with Campbell for much of their careers.
And Mackay told the Press and Journal that his work in Fife as an operations director for a fabrication firm ruled him out of being able to devote the necessary time to help bring the team back up to speed.
Mackay joined Brora from Nairn County in 2012 and the club won the titles in 2013/14 and 2014/15 as an influx of top and recent SPFL-class players headed north.
Campbell was taken on as assistant boss to Mackay in 2019 and this summer they signed new deals to remain at the club until 2023.
No knee-jerk reaction
However, poor results in the League Cup, the nature of the weekend’s defeat, allied with the work required to improve them and Mackay’s work outside the Highlands, led to the boss making his tough decision.
For Campbell, he stressed that his was not a light and swift call from the manager on Saturday night.
He said: “Steven and I are best mates and we’ve pretty much played at every team together. He invited me to be part of the coaching staff here, which I’ll always be grateful for.
“He had his reasons for feeling the way he does. I know the work and commitment he has been putting in, travelling up and down the road to get to training as much as he can.
“It was difficult. People were thinking it was maybe a knee-jerk reaction to the result, but it wasn’t. It was an accumulation of factors. Overall, it was a tough and emotional day for us all.
“Steven deserves a huge amount of credit. He was the first player to take the plunge and join Brora. He probably played a huge part in a lot of the boys joining the club. It helped take the club from where they were to becoming champions.”
Focus on visit of young Dons
Campbell hasn’t thought about taking the job on longer than the immediate future with the visit of Aberdeen under-21s to Dudgeon Park for round one of the SPFL Trust Trophy, formerly known as the Challenge Cup, the main focus.
He said: “I will obviously need to speak to the club and see what they’re thinking. I would imagine they will be looking to advertise the job, but myself and Nelly (first-team coach Neil Macdonald) have said we’ll take the reins at the moment to help out.
“We know where we are with the squad. We are short of numbers and we do need to add a few players if we want to be challenging for the league again.”
Trio out of Tuesday’s cup clash
Two years ago, under much different circumstances, Brora bashed the Dons ‘B’ team 6-0, although they’ll go into this one without the unavailable trio of Tom Kelly, James Wallace and John Pickles.
Campbell added: “We don’t know what kind of side Aberdeen will bring through, but I am sure they’ll have plenty of good players, so it will be another difficult test for us, but hopefully the boys can bounce back.
“That’s the good thing about football. The next game is just around the corner after a bad result, so hopefully we can sort it out.
“We said to the boys after the game that there is no doubting the ability in our changing room. I felt Fraserburgh out-fought us on Saturday, which was disappointing and that’s something that needs addressed.
“But there is absolutely no doubting the ability of the players we’ve got in our dressing room. You don’t go from winning leagues to turning into bad players overnight.”
