Tara Murray
St Albans Saints are hoping to put a turbulent few months behind them with a new coaching panel in place for the rest of the National Premier League.
The Saints were sitting second bottom after 12 rounds with just two wins for the season to date.
Having parted ways with then coach Ryan McGuffie, the Saints this week announced that Cameron Watson would coach the side for the rest of the season.
Watson, who will be supported by Billy Celeski, started the season coaching Hume City before the club parted ways with him.
Saints football operations manager Jason Xerri said they were excited by the new coaching set up.
“Both come with a wealth of experiences in their playing days,” he said. “Both were in the A-League and abroad.
“We went through the process after we parted ways with Ryan. We had a timeline in place to come up with a permanent solution for the rest of the season.
“Our assistant Paul Donnelly took on the role in the interim and was given the opportunity to be part of the process, but we decided to go with Cam.
Xerri said Watson and Celeski came in with a lot of research on the side and the competition as a whole.
He said having been involved in the NPL to start the season had helped with that.
“We’re really looking forward to a different style of coaching,” he said. “Hopefully he’ll [Watson] inject a new voice.
“He’s quite knowledgeable and it was evident in the interview process.”
Watson had his first training session on Monday night.
Xerri said the season so far had been disappointing with the side int he relegation battle.
“It has been underwhelming,” he said. “We haven’t been able to turn things around as quickly as we would have liked.
“It’s mid-season now. Obviously you look at what is going wrong and right and look at rectifying that and get back in it in the second half of the season.”
Xerri said there were a combination of different things that had contributed to their poor form so far.
He said they were hoping to turn things around and move out of the relegation zone.
“It’s not where we want to be,” he said. “We’re not in the position the club wants to be,’
“We’ve really underperformed this year and need to change that quickly.”
The Saints are set to face South Melbourne on Sunday.
The Saints are back at home after five weeks on the road with works at their ground, which was something they had been looking forward to.
It will be a busy couple of weeks for the Saints who will be action in round six of the Australia Cup against Green Gully on May 21.
