Fort William interim manager Tommylee Taylor expects to remain in charge until January.
Since Ashley Hollyer and Paul Coutts left the Lochaber club in September, Taylor has been looking after things.
It hasn’t been an easy task with Fort finding themselves rooted to the bottom of the Breedon Highland League, eight points adrift of Strathspey Thistle and Turriff United.
No permanent replacement has been found for Hollyer, and Taylor expects to be in charge into the new year before a new manager and revamp of the squad takes place.
He said: “It’s been challenging after the previous management team leaving.
“A couple of the players who haven’t been good enough have moved on as well.
“There’s been a few changes, but it’s a case of trying to get through to January so the club can get the new manager in place and some new signings in.
“When that happens hopefully we can kick on and have a good second half of the season.
“Since I came in there’s been a lot of winnable games that we’ve thrown away, which has been very frustrating.”
Trying to stay positive
Fort William’s only point this season came against Nairn County, with defeats to Strathspey and Turriff leaving them at the bottom.
At the weekend they only had 11 players available for their clash at Princess Royal Park with Deveronvale and lost 10-0.
Taylor is trying to keep spirits up ahead of the new manager coming in, but knows the spectre of relegation looms if they do finish bottom.
This season is the first in which the Highland League’s bottom side must compete in a relegation play-off to try to stay in the division.
Taylor added: “It’s about trying to continue to be positive and keep trying to go in the right direction so when new players do come in we can make a quick start.
“In the second half of the season we need to start picking up points and going on a run, otherwise we know we will be in the relegation play-off.
“We don’t want the club to be in that position.”
Board support has been appreciated
Although Fort William haven’t got the results Taylor has wanted, he has appreciated the support of chairman John Trew and those running the club over the last couple of months.
He said: “The chairman and the other people running the club have been really good.
“I’ve had regular conversations with them and the communication has been really good.
“Any assistance I’ve needed they’ve tried their best to help me, so I can’t thank the board enough for that.”
