McGovern and MacDonald Interview
JP McGovern and Peter MacDonald spoke to the official website this evening, to give their thoughts after being confirmed as Clyde’s interim management team.
The duo were speaking after taking the club’s Thursday night training session.
“We’re both confident in our abilities and we played at a decent level,” Peter said. “I think we’re vocal as players and coaches and I’d like to think we’re looked upon as older and more experienced guys that can give advice to others.”
“I think we’ve got the respect of the boys and we’re coming from a player background,” JP added. “We need to have mutual respect with the players, get together and get going.”
The pair also held a meeting with the squad after training this evening and Peter continued:-
“We’re going to have an open door. We will be 100% honest with everyone – whether they will like it or not. If someone wants to know why they aren’t playing, we’ll tell them. If they want to know what they can do to improve, we’ll tell them. We’ve let the squad come to us tonight with any issues they want to raise.”
“We’re totally agreed that that is the way forward,” JP said. “It’s a bit of a cliché, but we’ve got 12 cup finals now. First of all, we need to win a game to build a platform and move us forward. Where it can go from there, it’s up to us and the squad and we need to back each other.
“Let’s forget everything that’s happened in the past and concentrate on Saturday to start with. Whether we win, lose or draw the boys will be well-prepared and we will demand a certain attention to detail.”
Peter continued, “The main thing we’re going to ask for is hard work, because we will structure the players in the way we think is needed. We’re asking for a willingness to change, even just for themselves, to get three points on the board.”
JP and Peter also revealed that they have known each other for a lot longer than just this season with The Bully Wee.
“We played together at under-8 level for Hillwood Boys Club in Pollok,” JP said. “Both of our fathers spent time together helping us as kids so we’ve got a strong background. We went different ways in our careers and we’ve had different experiences but it’s our job now to use that to get the best out of the players.”
“We don’t want any negativity,” Peter added. “We want to be positive in everything we do. The boys were brilliant to deal with tonight and they are good players.”
“It’s a good group and a talented group and it’s our job to get them to flourish now,” JP said. “We need to restore some pride and the best way to do that is to get some results, performances and effort.”
Peter: “Desire. The desire to give your all and if it’s not good enough on the day, at least you’ve given everything.”
To conclude, both men were keen to call for unity at the club and acknowledged the important role that supporters could play. JP said:-
“We totally understand that the fans pay good money; they travel, they spend their day off going to Annan and use their wages that they’ve worked for all month to come and watch Clyde. They’ve got every right to demand effort and we’ll be doing that.
“We might not always get the performance, we understand that, but we’re looking for effort to start with and once the fans see that, I think they’ll react in a good way. That can only help the boys on the pitch and we really need them to get behind us. We will try to give them a team to be proud of.”
Peter concluded: “If the fans can get behind us for the full 90 minutes, it gives the squad the opportunity to do better. It doesn’t matter how many people are in the stand, it has an effect on some individuals. We would rather it had an effect on the opposition.
“Hopefully we can create the right atmosphere on Saturday and with the way that the boys trained tonight and had a chat as a group, we’re looking forward to it and raring to go.”