Sport / ‘I’m younger than Martin O’Neill’ – Tait and Thomson to lead Shetland football team in county
FORMER Thistle coaches Jim Tait and John Thomson will lead Shetland men’s football team in their inter-county clash with Orkney this summer.
Tait and Thomson will coach the team on an interim basis for July’s match only, having been out of the game for some time.
Tait managed Thistle during a period during of sustained success in the 1990s, leaving the role in 1996 due to family commitments.
He said he did not expect to then be out of the game for 30 years – before returning to manage Shetland in a one-off fixture.
Septuagenarians Martin O’Neill and Roy Hodgson returned to management too this season, but Tait – while not revealing his own age – distanced himself from those two.
“I’m younger than Martin O’Neill and Roy Hodgson,” Tait told Shetland News.
“Although me and John aren’t getting any younger.”
Tait and Thomson were confirmed as Shetland’s interim coaching team at a meeting of the football association on Thursday.
He said they had considered putting their names in the hat to replace Neil Fenwick last November, before deciding against the idea.
“We kind of gave up on the idea, but it dragged on, and we heard there was nobody coming in for the job,” he said.
“Someone asked me, ‘why don’t you go for it?’ After that we decided, yeah, we will give it a try.”
Tait joked that it was “my idea”, and that Thomson “just came along” with him because of their long-standing connection.
He said he gave up management in 1996 and “didn’t think it would be 30 years later” when he returned to the dugout.
“I never really saw much opportunity,” Tait added.
Joining Tait and Thomson will be Martin Leyland and Craig Dinwoodie, who also assisted former coach Fenwick in years previous.
While the Shetland team has been without a manager since Fenwick’s departure last August, the players have continued training – and have sessions booked on the new 3G pitch until July’s inter-county fixture in Orkney.
“We’ll be there next Wednesday, and we’ll hopefully get a reasonable turnout,” Tait said.
“I want to speak to each and every one of them [the players] individually. There’s a lot of them I don’t know, very few that I’ve actually spoken to.”
The most important thing, Tait said, was to get the annual Laurenson Cup match as soon as possible.
Shetland will take on Whitedale in the match, which sees the county squad take on the previous year’s league champions.
Tait said he hoped to get the game played by 27 May, so that he can get a first glimpse of the players in competitive action.
He said they would “probably start off with the nucleus of last year’s squad”, but added there was definitely room for new faces.
“I’ve seen every team in action so far this season, there’s a couple of guys that are looking good.”
And Tait, who said the opportunity to manage Shetland had presented itself properly for the first time, said it will “definitely” be a source of pride to lead the team out in July.
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