Interim Queen of the South boss Wullie Gibson said it’s a “great honour” to lead his home town team.
But the 37-year-old is taking the role game by game following the departures of Allan Johnston and Sandy Clark on Sunday.
Gibson said: “When I got the phone call on Sunday to speak to the chairman I wasn’t sure what was going to come out of the conversation. But when I was asked to take the team going forward it was a great honour.
“I didn’t hesitate. There’s not many times where you’ll be offered to lead your home town team forward. Whether it’s one week, two weeks or the rest of the season that is still to be decided. But there was no hesitation on my part.
“I’ve been at Queens for a long time and I’ve got great love for the club. The messages from the fans over the last couple of days have shown the connection I’ve got to the club.
“It’s something I’ve been working towards. When you get older in your career you start doing your badges and looking at the next step and the next step for me is management at some point.”
Gibson is hoping to announce an assistant to help him in his role this week with reports linking former Hamilton Accies boss Brian Rice with the role.
Rice’s name was put to Gibson, who replied: “I’ve had about 100 names flung at me but out of respect for the person I’ve asked to come in I’ll not name names.
“I’ve made a couple of phone calls and I’m hoping to hear back this week because I want to play.
“I think I’m a big part of the team and the chairman has expressed that as well.
“For me to do that I need somebody to be in the dugout. When you’re out there playing – and I’ve done it when Sandy and Allan have been out with Covid – you get wrapped up in your own performance and you can’t see the bigger picture so I’ll try my best to bring someone in and hopefully they’ll be in this week.”
It will be a baptism of fire for the new manager on Saturday as he goes up against one of the most experienced men in the game in Dick Campbell when table-topping Arbroath come to town.
He said: “Dick is always a good laugh if anything else. Arbroath are top of the league on merit, they have been absolutely outstanding.
“People keep banging on about them being part time. To me that doesn’t matter because they are top of the league and they are there on merit.”
