Whitburn boss Jamie Sandilands believes it would be a ‘disservice’ to the club to settle for a mid-table finish during his first campaign at Central Park.
The new gaffer has taken up his first managerial role after a dozen years of experience on the coaching staff at Larkhall Thistle and Arthurlie and he says his aim is to challenge for trophies.
The Burnie were well placed to mount a title challenge last term prior to the Covid-19 pandemic which forced the season to be brought to a halt.
Previous boss Jason Bolam and his management team stepped down but the committee acted swiftly to bring in their new man - and he says he’s delighted to have been given the opportunity.
Speaking to the West Lothian Courier, he said: “It’s been a strange couple of months but I’m delighted to have been given the role and very happy with where things currently are with the squad.
“I joked with Ann (Haddow, club secretary) last week that I must have the longest unbeaten run to start a career at the club - and we’ve also not conceded a goal yet!”
While it’s been frustrating at times with no games or even training sessions, the new gaffer is focusing on the positives of the situation, commenting: “I probably couldn’t have picked a worse time to take the role but it wasn’t one I was going to turn down. Whitburn are a massive club and we’ve got high aims for the new season.
“It would be a disservice for me to come into a club of this size and settle for anything other than challenging in every competition. We want to be in the latter stages of cups and right up there in the title race.
“It’s obviously been a challenging time not being able to train or have any games but hopefully it won’t be too long.
“The good thing, though, is that it’s allowed me to get to know my players as people. It’s given me time to have conversations and learn about them. That’s difficult to do during training sessions and I think that’s actually going to be something that’s vitally important.”
The former goalkeeper took over a strong team and he paid tribute to his predecessors as he looks to continue to take the club forward.
He commented: “It’s not really a normal way to take over at a club. Usually you’re having to change everything because results have been poor. You’re given a chance because the previous manager has been sacked but that couldn’t be further from the truth here.
“The club were really going places and had a great team and a huge amount of credit for that has to go to the previous management team. I didn’t need to come in and make loads of changes and ditch the entire team.
“I made that quite clear to the boys when I started that they were up at the top end of the league for a reason and I wanted to keep as many of them on as possible. To their credit, everyone that has agreed to stay did so without even having to think about it and the boys that have left all had perfectly valid reasons.
“Nobody was desperate to leave and that speaks volumes to me about the club. I want to continue with that being the case and hopefully the results will come whenever we get playing.”
