Aaron Connolly says he’s not concerned about his future at East Kilbride Thistle, and the focus is simply on winning games and climbing the West of Scotland League Third Division table.
Connolly says the club have had a lot to contend with in recent weeks, with the departure of boss Garry O’Hanlon and several players, and the sad passing away of ex-manager Alan Paterson last week, aged 44.
The striker hailed his side’s character after beating Finnart 3-2 on Saturday, and expects to be in charge for Saturday’s clash at Dalry Thistle.
He said: “At this point I honestly don’t know. I’m not overly concerned about my future, I want to talk about the players and their reaction to everything that has happened over the last couple of weeks.
“They lost their manager and had to regroup – over the last month we’ve lost four or five players – and had to bring in 20s, who have all stood up to it brilliantly.
“The reaction from all the players has been unbelievable, I couldn’t be any more proud of the way they’ve handled this.
“You add on top of that the very sad passing of Alan Paterson. The bulk of our squad played under Patsy at a period of time, myself included, and those who haven’t have known him.
“He was always such a popular figure in the town.
“The guys have done brilliantly to take on this challenge and to go and win two games of football, coming out of a period where they had only won one in their last eight, is unbelievable.
“I’m so grateful to have the bunch of boys in there that I have.”
On the 3-2 win, Paterson said: “It took us 25 minutes to get to grips with the game on Saturday, Finnart were very good in the early part, their system caused us some issues.
“But we tweaked a few things and once we got to grips with it we probably deserved to win the game.
“I’m very pleased with six points in the last two weeks, it’s been very good.
“Character is something we’ve spoken a lot about, prior even to me coming in and taking over for this interim period.
“I’ve always believed in the character of these players, in terms of dealing with adversity, and I think what we’re starting to see is them getting that back, which comes from winning.”
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