Patrick Cregg says the ambition of Brechin City attracted him to become the Breedon Highland League side’s new manager.
The Irishman has been appointed as Gavin Price’s successor with Logan McConachie joining from Spartans as assistant manager.
Cregg, a former Arsenal, Falkirk, Hibs, Morton, St Mirren, Bury, St Johnstone, Shamrock Rovers, St Patrick’s Athletic, Forfar and Montrose midfielder, has been back in his homeland for the last five years as assistant boss at St Patrick’s Athletic and Dundalk.
Now the 38-year-old will return to Scotland and has been tasked with trying to get Brechin promoted back to SPFL following their relegation in 2021.
Explaining why he’s taken the job, Cregg said: “Having spoke to the board at Brechin, it’s a club with ambition that wants to get back into the Scottish League.
“That’s something that aligns with my way of thinking and they showed great ambition when I spoke to them.
“It will be a process to try to get back up – the first step is to compete and to try to win the Highland League.
“We know that won’t be easy and it’s a gradual process to achieve that.
“But the club would like to get promoted and, over my term, I hope to do that.”
New boss doing his homework
Cregg hasn’t been involved in the Highland League before, but is familiarising himself with what to expect.
He added: “I’ve done my due diligence on the league. It’s very competitive and there have been bunch finishes over the last three seasons.
“Brechin won it in 2023, lost out on goal difference this year and were third in 2022.
“It’s very competitive with a lot of clubs capable of gathering a substantial amount of points.
“It’s a great challenge and really exciting to be involved in it.”
Learning from previous managers
During his career, Cregg has played under the likes of Arsene Wenger, John Hughes, Danny Lennon and Tommy Wright.
The former Republic of Ireland Under-21 international says all his former bosses will shape what sort of manager he is.
Cregg said: “You’re always learning – you take something from every manager you work with and you’d be silly not to do that.
“Even as an assistant manager, I was looking at people I worked under and what they did.
“You take the good things from it and I’ll definitely do that as a manager.
“John Hughes was big for me, because I was at Falkirk with him and we got to the Scottish Cup final and then I went to Hibs with him.
“I learned from all the managers I played under. You can’t not learn both good and bad from the people you worked with.
“You take all those things and try to shape your own way of doing things.”
Brechin chairman Kevin Mackie is pleased with their appointment, and said: “We are delighted to have secured Paddy’s services and look forward to him moving to Scotland and taking up the manager’s position at the club.
“He will be joined by Logan McConachie, who will now leave his position at Spartans to take up his role as assistant to Paddy.
“Logan has previously been assistant manager at Jeanfield Swifts.
“Both Paddy and Logan have ambitions to progress further up the leagues and their coaching skills will swing into action to work with the squad at training, which starts next week.”
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