Forres Mechanics manager Steven MacDonald hopes to bring ‘stability’ to club with new deal
‘Stability’ was the key word for Forres Mechanics manager Steven MacDonald after he agreed a two-year extension to his stay at the club.
MacDonald was about to enter his final season as Can-Cans boss, but signed a new deal on Friday - 24 hours before losing 3-0 to Rothes in the Highland League opener - that will keep him at Mosset Park until 2027.
MacDonald, who took over in January 2022, said: “The club needs stability. We need to be working towards something.
“You can’t just be signing players on three-year contracts and the manager is on his last year.
“We need to work together and that’s what we have done. There has got to be a long-term version. We have got to have a plan and work.
“We have changed eight faces again this year and we can’t keep doing that. We can’t keep turning over a huge amount of players.
“We have got to get some stability and keep players here - especially our better ones - and build on it. At the moment it’s just rebuild after rebuild.”
Mechanics again lost key players this summer, with goalkeeper Lee Herbert moving to Turriff United due to travel commitments and midfielder Craig Mackenzie joining Brora Rangers.
But the Cans fought off competition from elsewhere to sign Kyle MacLeod and keep Mark McLauchlan at the club.
MacDonald knows he is in charge of a youthful side, but said that everyone is now pulling in the same direction with regard to the future.
“Everyone is on the same page and everyone knows where the club is at,” he said.
“I have said it until I’m blue in the face. It’s a young team and we are in a very difficult situation financially. But that’s all been said to death - there is a lot of positivity around the club just now in general.
“Everyone knows where we are and what we have to do to get back to being a club that’s in the top half of the league.”
MacDonald was furious with a red card shown to Kyle MacLeod in Saturday’s 3-0 defeat to Rothes.
His goalkeeper Corey Patterson was also dismissed, leaving the Cans needing to find a goalkeeper ahead of a trip to Turriff United this weekend.
