Gavin Price’s time in interim charge of Lossiemouth is over with logistics proving to be a stumbling block for continuing his tenure at Grant Park.
The former Elgin City and Brechin City boss came in to assist the Coasters in early September following the departure of Eddie Wolecki Black in August.
Price helped Lossie reach the semi-final of the North of Scotland Cup and pick up two Breedon Highland League victories.
However, travelling from Aberfeldy to Lossiemouth made it difficult for Price to commit to the job long-term.
He had been trying to attend one training session per week on top of the Coasters’ games, but the sides have now amicably parted way.
Praise for Price
Ian Campbell, Steve Porter and Steven Dunn remain in interim charge and Campbell was full of praise for Price.
He said: “I’ve got nothing but positive things to say about Gavin and what he’s done.
“We’re hugely grateful to Gavin for the help he has given us. He’s been brilliant and the only stumbling block is the travelling commitment it would require from him.
“We’ve been trying to do it where he would come up to training on a Thursday and stay up for the game on a Saturday.
“But with his business commitments it’s hard for him to keep doing that.
“The players have enjoyed working with Gavin and he’s helped us get some good results.
“He’s a really good coach who really knows his stuff and if it wasn’t for the logistics he’s said he would have taken the job.
“He’ll still be on hand to give us advice and help us out where he can.
“It’s totally amicable, we both knew that this might end up being the outcome rather than it being a permanent thing.
“We’ve spoken about it and it’s difficult to make everything work, but Gavin has been very professional and the players have picked up a lot from him.”
Coasters look to climb the table
Lossiemouth return to action on Saturday when they face champions Buckie Thistle at Victoria Park.
The club’s committee will decide what the next steps will be when it comes to appointing a new permanent manager.
Campbell added: “We’ll try to pick things up and getting going again, sometimes that’s when we’re at our best when the chips are down a little bit.
“Off the field the club is in a very good place, but we’d like things to be a bit better on the field.
“We have got a good squad. It’s just not quite clicking for us, we’ve got a tough run coming up with Buckie, Deveronvale in the Highland League Cup and then Brechin.
“We need to start getting ourselves sorted out to try to make sure we aren’t pulled to the bottom.
“All the boys work hard and hopefully that can get us through.”
Thomson holding the fort at Rothes
Derek Thomson is looking to restore Rothes’ confidence as their search for a new manager continues.
Mackessack Park director of football Thomson will be in charge for Saturday’s home game against Turriff United in the Breedon Highland League.
The Speysiders, who are bottom of the table, parted company with Richard Hastings last week.
The deadline for applications to become Rothes manager is Sunday with the Moray club weighing up their options at the moment.
But Thomson’s main concern is trying to pick up three valuable points this weekend.
The ex-Rothes, Buckie Thistle, Nairn County, Cove Rangers, Forres Mechanics and Leicester City winger said: “It’s never nice to see people losing their jobs and I was sorry to see Richard go.
“But my job is to hold the fort until the club gets someone in.
“The confidence is low because of where we are in the table, but we need to try to build the confidence and get a bit of fight into our performances again.
“Hopefully if we do that we can get a result, but we’re up against a team in Turriff that will be fighting very hard as well.
“We need everything to click, we’ve picked up one or two results and have had some decent spells in games.
“But we need to try to do that more consistently and get some momentum behind us.
“We’re looking for points and we need to try to pick up as many as we can.
“We’ll see what happens with who comes in, but the club is going through the process with regards that.
“I’m just concentrating on the game on Saturday and trying to pick up some points.”
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