New Lossiemouth manager Steve Porter believes Coasters can get better and better but focuses on Highland League survival as short-term target for Grant Park club
New boss Steve Porter knows how to get the best out of his Lossiemouth squad - he’s already coached so many of them at youth level.
Porter (38) was appointed as Lossie’s fourth manager of 2024, stepping up from his role as first team coach.
He followed in the footsteps of his father, long-serving Elgin City youth coach and Elgin Boys’ Club stalwart Graeme ‘Tiger’ Porter in taking on a coaching position with the Borough Briggs club while he was still a teenager.
Porter then ended his long association with City to join goalkeeping coach Stevie Dunn in joining Lossie as part of then-manager Eddie Wolecki Black’s backroom staff.
Wolecki Black departed after just seven matches in charge, with Porter and Dunn taking interim charge until ex-Elgin City boss Gavin Price was persuaded to boss Lossie on a short-term basis.
Price’s recent departure led to Porter being put forward for the position and he has gladly accepted.
“I jumped at the chance,” he said. “The majority of the boys in the team, I’ve coached when they were youth players at Elgin City.
“Most of the boys are from the Moray and the majority I have coached, some of them when they five or six year old. “The likes of Ryan Stuart when they were just wee toots, but when they’ve went up the tree I’ve coached them a bit as well. That does make me feel old!”
Porter will continue to work with Dunn, who will be his assistant.
The new management team are aware of the Coasters’ precarious position near the foot of the Highland League, with nearest rivals Strathspey Thistle and Rothes also bringing in new bosses in recent weeks.
Porter says he has a lot of trust in his current squad to steer Lossie away from the basement, but will look to recruit new faces as well.
He has already brought in winger Ryan Matheson from Deveronside, a player he identified as Highland League quality having watched him play in the junior ranks.
“I think there’s a really good playing squad there and a lot of good individual players, and the camaraderie between the players is really good,” he said.
“To be honest we maybe need to strengthen a couple of positions in the team and I have few targets in mind. One was signed at the weekend in Ryan, who I think is a really good signing.
“We’ve got good players and if we can land some targets to come in and strengthen, we can go and compete.
“Short term, we are near the bottom and we need to get away from that and push up the table. But the standards have been improving every week in training and in games as well.”
Porter revealed how he has been coaching football for more than 25 years.
“Since I was a young loon, even at school,” he said. “This is my first senior appointment at adult level.
“I was 18 when I started proper coaching at Elgin City but I was coaching school teams at 12 and 13, down at the high school.
“My two brothers (Craig and Stuart) were really good football players and I probably wasn’t as good as them. I always liked watching the football and seeing my old man coach. I always used to get dragged down to training anyway, but it always interested me and that’s why I ended up doing it for so long.
“I coached pretty much every level at Elgin City from under-8s up to under-18s.”
Porter headed up Elgin City’s football academy for an 18 month spell, but couldn’t resist the chance to join Lossiemouth and coach senior players.
“Every game we’ve played in I feel we’ve competed. Games can be really tight and just that bit of brilliance from some individual or a setpiece and that’s it settled.”
He feels he can form a strong partnership with his assistant Dunn. “I’ve played with Stevie in the past at Bish United when he was the goalkeeper, and at Elgin as well.
“Stevie is a bit of a no-nonsense kind of guy and he is really good for the group.
“He’s excellent with the goalkeepers. Stuart Knight and Arran Anderson are probably two of the best goalkeepers in the league I think, so for him to enhance them even more is key for us.”
First game in charge for Porter is an important one tomorrow, at home in the Highland League Cup to a Deveronvale side who beat Lossie 4-0 recently in the league after goalkeeper Knight had been sent off.
