“It’s gone so much better than I could ever have hoped for”: Alan Maybury on life at FC Edinburgh
Very rarely do you see a football manager lead his team to promotion in the first two months of their managerial career, unless you’re Alan Maybury.
In March, the 44-year-old took interim charge of League Two side FC Edinburgh, (formerly Edinburgh City) until the end of the season, but as Maybury explained, the club were already in a good position:
“When I took over, they were in fourth, so sitting in the last play-off place. But, speaking to the owners and the chairman, they felt the club had stalled a bit and weren’t sure how they were going to go forward, which is why they changed manager. It was just to see what I could do to get them going again.”
Maybury as assistant manager of Oldham Athletic in October 2020 (Image: Getty)
Despite a 2-0 loss to Elgin City in Maybury’s first game in charge, a 1-1 draw against Kelty Hearts and 2-0 win over Forfar Athletic followed as the Citizens secured the last promotion play-off position.
On the club’s run of results leading up to the play-offs, Maybury recalled: “We lost the first game, we were two-nil down after 15 minutes and had a player sent off. But, we played quite well in the draw against Kelty in the next game. I think that then gave everybody a lift and the players started to believe in what we were trying to do.”
The capital side dispatched Dumbarton 5-2 across both legs to set up a do-or-die clash with Annan Athletic in the final, knowing victory would propel them into League One for the first time in their history.
Two goals from the Galabankies had the aggregate score finely poised at the interval, but an Innes Murray strike in the 53rd minute proved to be enough for the Citizens to clinch promotion.
Maybury talked through the emotions of that memorable day, but admitted it wasn’t long before it was back to business: “It probably didn’t really quite sink in and it was more like, what have we done?!
“On the Monday, I had a meeting with the owners on how we were going to go forward, so I probably didn’t allow myself a lot of time to enjoy it.”
FC Edinburgh are sitting second in League One, with 15 points after their opening eight games. Maybury praised his players for their impressive start, but stresses he is under no illusions of the challenges ahead: “For little old Edinburgh to be sitting where we are, we’ve done a brilliant job.
“But, we have taken sore ones against Dunfermline, Falkirk, Queen of the South and the challenge for me and the players, at the moment, is how do we compete against full-time teams that bit better.”
However, one thing is for sure, the club aren’t there to make up the numbers: “We don’t just want to survive. We want to compete, do well and not be that team who are hanging on. So, we are trying to aim high and see where it takes us.”