Ross Draper returns to caretaker Elgin City manager role as Borough Briggs club seeks applications to become the fourth City boss in seven months
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Former Elgin City boss Ross Draper will return to the Borough Briggs hotseat in a temporary measure while the club begins the hunt for their next boss.
Following Monday's bombshell that Barry Smith had resigned from the City managerial post after just eight games in charge, the Black and Whites have opened the application process to fill the vacancy.
Chairman Graham Tatters said current player Draper will take the team for Saturday's League 2 trip to face Dumbarton.
City also host Forfar Athletic next Tuesday then don't have a fixture for 11 days, a period of time they will use to appoint their next manager.
Draper first entered football management in April, joining coaches Charlie Charlesworth and Stevie Dunn as interim co-managers following Gavin Price's dismissal.
The caretaker trio steered Elgin away from the threat of relegation back to the Highland League, with Draper scoring the stoppage time winner against Dumbarton on the penultimate week of the campaign which secured the club's safety.
Draper was then appointed as City boss in May, but lasted just 11 matches into the current season before stepping down due to the pressures of the role combined with his main job.
Smith took over in September, but Tatters explained how the former Celtic and Dundee player's own work commitments took their toll.
"He couldn’t commit to everything because of the travelling and the requirement of the job," said the Elgin chair. "He couldn’t deal with it because of the extra work commitments that he had.
"It certainly came as a shock to us."
The club is in desperate need of stability, seeing a succession of managers come and go as well as their struggles near the foot of League 2 and the embarrassment of their 6-0 Scottish Cup defeat to East of Scotland League side Jeanfield Swifts.
Tatters said they would set just one target for their next boss, just like they did with his predecessor - to avoid relegation.
"We’ve just got to get someone in to make sure that we are not the bottom club this season," he said.
"We said to Barry, the only thing that’s left that we’ve got to make sure.......we were not putting pressure on him for play-offs or anything, the first thing to deal with is to get us out of club 42.
"That’s what we are interested in right now. The rest of it, we can just start again and rebuild things.
"Anybody coming in, all the loan deals are done and they can’t do anything until the January window.
"They will have to start thinking who they need to bring in. We haven’t got a left back in the squad so that is one position.
"It has been harsh on all of the young kids that we have brought in because you would hope that we would have a strong side so they can start learning - but now we are depending on them.
"They are doing well, they were put out by their clubs to gain experience and they are certainly getting that at Elgin."
Tatters revealed that the club spoke to possible candidates in the wake of Smith's resignation but elected to seek applicants
"We’ve tried a couple of people who we thought might be interested but we decided to open it up for applications and see who comes forward."
