Ambition takes Anderson to Thistle

Jun 18 2009 by Andrew McGilvray, Hamilton Advertiser

LANARKSHIRE’S managerial merry-go-round continued this week as Larkhall Thistle appointed Forth Wanderers boss Paul Anderson as their new manager.

This will be his second stint in the Gasworks Park dug-out, having briefly been assistant to Bobby Crilly before taking over at Forth two years ago.

Larkhall president Roy Gibson said: “We received eight applications and interviewed all of them over a period of three nights last week.

“We were very impressed with the quality of applicant and the responses we got which, we think, puts the club in a good standing to attract such quality of applications.

“We gave it a lot of consideration before making our final decision, and cleared the way with both Paul and the Forth committee before announcing it to the players.”

Paul, who played centre-half with Lesmahagow, Cumnock, Lanark United and Larkhall Thistle, also had a spell as coach with Lanark before his switch to Forth.

He said: “It was a hard decision to make because Forth were so good to me – they gave me my first chance as a manager and provided a lot of support during my time there.

“I feel that I’ve maybe let them down but this was too good an opportunity to miss, to manage in a higher division.

“I enjoyed my time as a player at Larkhall – back then the club were in a higher position. They’re ambitious – as I am – and want to return to those higher divisions.”

Forth secretary Jim Kelly said: “We were gutted – the first I heard about Paul being appointed was when one of the applicants phoned to ask if he could be considered for the Forth Job. I replied, ‘What Forth job?’

“It was mentioned to me at a League Management Committee meeting last Tuesday that Paul was in for the Larkhall job.

“I said that can’t be – we had arranged on Monday to meet with the players on Saturday to talk about re-signing.

“But we had to hurriedly cancel that and arrange an emergency management committee meeting for Monday to see where we are going.”