Owen Coyle has QUIT Queen’s Park just days after he failed in his bid to lead the Spiders to the Scottish Premiership.
The 56-year-old took over in March last year and won them promotion into the Championship after a win against Dunfermline in the play-offs. Coyle looked on course for a second a successive promotion – and the ambitious club’s third – as they battled it out at the top of the second tier with Dundee.
However, they were pipped to automatic promotion on a thrilling final day at Ochilview a they lost 5-3 to the Taysiders. That saw them drop into the play-offs and they were eliminated by Partick Thistle following another ding-dong battle. The Spiders lost 4-3 at Firhill in the first leg before they were thrashed 4-0 on Friday. And Coyle has now stepped down, leaving director of football Marijn Beuker and chief executive Leeann Dempster on the hunt for a new boss to try to lead them into the Premiership next season.
Coyle told the club website: “It’s with a heavy heart that I inform everyone that I will be leaving Queen’s Park. I informed the club of my wish to leave after what has been an outstanding last 12 months winning promotion to the Championship when nobody gave us a chance of doing so and then coming so close to winning the league and reaching the SPFL playing exciting and entertaining football. I would like to thank my 1st team staff and everyone that helped make it an enjoyable year, Queen’s Park is a wonderful club with an amazing set of supporters who I want to personally thank. I wish the Club continued success on its journey.”
Spiders chief executive Dempster added: "Although disappointing, we respect Owen’s decision and wish him well for the future, and we thank him for his efforts over the last twelve months. We now begin the task of finding a new head coach to help us in our aims of being the best club to develop talented young players and achieving success on the pitch.”
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