Pat Scullion on East Stirlingshire rebuild job, planning for the future and giving youth a chance

The Shire kick off their Scottish Lowland Football League campaign on Saturday afternoon at the Falkirk Stadium against Tranent, with kick-off at 3pm.

Last season was one of change for the club, with club legend Derek Ure departing early on in the season. Sandy Clark then steadied the ship before moving to Albion Rovers, opening the door for Scullion to take charge of the final few fixtures.

"There has been a lot of change at the club across the board,” Scullion explained. “We have great people behind the scenes who want to really bring the club forward. We want to go in a really positive direction.

“We’ve had a lot of new players to bed in over the summer. The goal has been to integrate them into our principles of play and into our system.

“You need to work smart at this level as the guys need to be fit too so it is a balancing act.

“Pre-season went okay. It was a bit of a mixed bag, we are really early in our journey as a squad.

“In many ways, that is why I am here. We are trying to rebuild the club properly and that takes time. I’ve set a vision here and it is up to me to bring that to life on the pitch.

“I’m not naive and I know I could be dumped after ten games if results have been shocking, but I think there is an understanding that what we are going to do is going to take time.

“We want to grow but that can only happen at this level if you do it in the right way and build something up from the start.

"We don’t have the money some of the teams at our level do.”

“The average age of the squad is 23 years old and eight months exactly. That probably tells you a bit about what we are doing. Sam Young has come in from Dunfermline on loan and he is only 17.

“We are giving boys an opportunity. Ryan McLean is another example, he was at Kelty Hearts' under-20s.

"He fits the profile which is key and I know he can develop into a very strong Lowland League player.

“I’ve brought in some guys I know well from my time at Inverkeithing Hillfield Swifts and I have a lot of trust in them. The guys we have brought in all buy into the project.”