Elgin City squad wasn't "built as a team" says departing manager Barry Smith who said he couldn't stay on at Borough Briggs if he couldn't give job his full commitment due to work demands
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Barry Smith says if Elgin was an hour closer to Dundee he would have been able to continue as Borough Briggs boss.
But an increase in the demands of his day job left the City manager with no choice but to quit after just eight matches in charge.
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Smith said he knew the challenges he faced in bossing the Black and Whites when he replaced Ross Draper in September.
And reflecting on his short term in the hot seat, he said he felt he worked with a squad of good players - "but I don't think it was built as a team".
The magnitude of the job became greater when City plunged to the bottom of League 2 and suffered the most humiliating result in their history - a 6-0 Scottish Cup defeat at Jeanfield Swifts.
Smith maintains he was still enjoying the task of improving the ailing club's fortunes, until added pressures of his full-time work meant making the 128-mil journey three times a week from his Dundee base to Moray a mission impossible.
"It’s just unfortunate. My schedule at work changed and given that I’ve got a two-and-a-half hour drive up to Elgin, I wasn't going to be able to make that drive in time," he said.
"I felt it was only fair to everyone at the club and the supporters that if I couldn’t make that full commitment, it was only fair to step away."
Smith dropped the bombshell to City chairman Graham Tatters last week, and said Saturday's League 2 match at home to Bonnyrigg Rose Athletic would be his last at the helm.
He went out on a high, steering Elgin off bottom spot with a 2-0 victory. When he waved to the delighted home supporters at full-time, no-one knew at the time he was bidding farewell to the club.
The former Celtic and Dundee defender knew when he came in two months ago that he wouldn't be able to strengthen his team until the January transfer window opened.
He said the Elgin supporters understood that and didn't put him in the firing line when their team endured 6-0 thrashings at Peterhead and Jeanfield, and were grateful of two wins and a draw in the three Borough Briggs matches he was in charge for.
"The fans have been really supportive and the reception I got before the match on Saturday was great. It shows they are good footballing people and they understand the position with the squad and as a manager you can only respect that.
"They understand that the squad I inherited does have good players but I don't think it was built as a team. That does bring it’s own challenges.
"There have been a couple of bad results which I take full responsibility for. In doing that, I must also take a wee bit of credit for taking seven points out of nine at home.
"You have to take the good with the bad and the fans at home saw a team that worked hard, which is something that I pride myself in. It is a team that was attacking in the right areas and playing football."
He said Tatters and his fellow board members wanted him to stay and make his travel concerns work somehow, but Smith felt his hands were tied.
"The chairman has been unbelievably supportive to myself and I have a lot of respect for the job he does at Elgin. I felt it was only right that he knew the circumstances.
"They didn’t want me to leave but it was the right thing for the club that if I couldn’t give the club the commitment they deserve, I couldn't continue.
"I knew there was challenges geographically and with my work schedule at the time it was fine and I was happy. The recent changes meant if Elgin was an hour closer then it wouldn’t have been a problem. But it wasn’t going to make sense."
The search begins now for Elgin's fourth manager in seven months and Smith was reluctant to offer any advice to his successor.
"I don’t think the new manager will need me to tell them anything. I have said what I feel is needed and I think he will probably come in and see the same things - good players, good individuals who are capable of beating anyone on their day as they have shown.
"But the inconsistency of having a young team and young players being asked to play a lot of senior football and some of them playing out of position has proved to be challenging."
The spectre of relegation back to the Highland League casts a shadow over Borough Briggs for a club that has finished second bottom in each of the last two seasons, and finds itself languishing once again.
But Smith concluded: "Ever since I came in, I was 100 per cent sure that the club is more than capable of staying in the league."
He highlighted the efforts made by one of City's previous managers, Gavin Price, in luring good players to Elgin but Smith believes north clubs will find it harder to recruit from the central belt.
"Trying to attract players from this area is something that Gavin was really successful in, getting the right players in at the time. But that is becoming more challenging.
"The Lowland League clubs are paying probably as much as Elgin and it’s more attractive not to do all the travelling up here.
"That’s a challenge that the club will definitely need to meet head-on.
"I just think they need everyone going in the same direction. That could mean businesses in the community and everyone associated with the club, all going the same way.
"It’s disappointing for everyone and it’s certainly disappointing for myself to have to leave. I was enjoying it at Elgin, the club has been brilliant and I have enjoyed working with the people here."
