Glenrothes FC: Chairman Peter McQuade’s promotion aim after agonising miss last season

Glenrothes, on 30 points from 14 games, currently occupy the third and final promotion slot in the first division ahead of resuming their league campaign at Kirkcaldy & Dysart this Saturday.

"Seventy minutes into the last game of last season we were getting promoted and then Oakley United scored,” McQuade told the Glenrothes Gazette. "It was painful. Only the top team got promoted (the leagues have since been restructured) and we should have had it won before the last game.

"We dropped silly points to teams but that’s football. We won our game but Oakley beat us by one point thanks to their late winner. But we are in a pretty strong position to go up this season.”

Glenrothes’ recent quest for high league finishes is in stark contrast to the state the club was in just four years ago, prior to quitting junior football for the East of Scotland League set-up.

“Back in the 2018-2019 season we were going nowhere,” McQuade said.

"Crowds weren’t very good. On the pitch we had been relegated, then promoted, then that management team left.

"The chairman at that time left. I was the general manager at the time and, with two or three other committee boys, we kept it going.

"We quickly realised that to move forward we needed to leave junior football and make that step to the East of Scotland League.”

On this Saturday’s vital league derby at Kirkcaldy & Dysart, McQuade added: “They are playing well and have a decent team.

"Big Craig Ness the manager is a decent guy. It will be a hard game but every game’s a hard game.

"There are so many difficult games and because we have played three or four games less than everybody else, these might be rescheduled to midweek fixtures and then you come up against boys working or boys suspended.

"We just have to knuckle down, get on with it. It was just unfortunate that for a two-month period in the winter we didn’t have a game.”

There are currently 19 players in the Glenrothes playing squad, which is led by co-managers Kev Smith and John Martin.