Dougie MacDuff says he’s ready to give Irvine Vics his all after becoming the club’s third manager in as many weeks.
The 54-year-old succeeds Alan Kelly who quit the hot seat last Wednesday just three days into the job.
MacDuff originally applied for the post following Brian McLuckie’s resignation on June 10.
But he insists being viewed as second choice doesn’t bother him as he returns to football following a self-imposed six-year hiatus.
The former Glasgow Perthshire, Stonehouse Violet and St Roch’s boss stepped away from the game in 2015 following a family bereavement.
Now he’s raring to get going again after the Vics committee turned to him on Sunday following Kelly’s shock departure for health reasons.
MacDuff, who now has less than three weeks to assemble a squad before the season kicks off on July 17, said: “I’ll give this job 100 per cent. The one thing I will not lack is effort.
“People might say I am second choice, but I’m not interested in that. There’s a big task in front of me. We’ve got eight signed players at the moment so it’s a massive rebuild.
“My focus is on using my contacts in the game to bring in boys who can do a job for us.
“We’re due to play Saltcoats on Saturday and Drumchapel the following week so things need to get moving as soon as possible.
“We’re six weeks behind everyone else in terms of preparation and need to hit the ground running.
“You can’t judge boys after just a couple of games but the aim is to get some foundations in place and build from that. Once we get a squad together we will start looking at targets for the season ahead."
Steven Callaghan comes in as MacDuff’s No 2, having previously worked together at Stonehouse. Coach Wil Devlin, originally part of Kelly’s management team, has agreed to stay on and work with the duo.
Kelly told Ayrshire Football News he was forced to walk away from football on doctors advice, two months after suffering a spinal injury.
He said: “I took the Vics job with the best of intentions but unfortunately the condition I have is not going to go away.
“My injury means I don’t have the ability to function properly. The doctors have told me I’m potentially one fall away from being in a wheelchair.
“I came to the conclusion two days into the job that it was time to knock it on the head. That’s me retired from football now.
“I could have tried to carry on but that wouldn’t have been fair on Vics.”
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