“An easy decision to make” - Lewis MacKinnon lands the manager’s job at Highland League champions Buckie Thistle to replace Graeme Stewart who he served as assistant for the past decade
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Lewis MacKinnon is the new manager at Buckie Thistle after a whirlwind week in the history of the new Highland League champions.
MacKinnon (39), who has been at Jags since the summer of 2006, steps up from assistant to previous boss Graeme ‘Spider’ Stewart who quit the hotseat last weekend.
The long-serving player hinted that he is likely to hang up his boots now to focus on trying to guide Buckie to more silverware.
The partnership forged between Stewart and MacKinnon has been solid for the past decade and MacKinnon revealed how he tried to persuade Stewart to stay at the helm.
“It was a big shock on Sunday when I spoke to Spider in the afternoon and he told me what he was planning on doing,” MacKinnon said. “I tried to talk him out of it initially but his mind was made up and I understand his reasons.
“I didn't see it coming, but once I thought about what the next move was for me in football with Buckie, I thought ‘why change things’. I knew I could step up, I am available and I have been working close to Graeme for the last ten years so it was an easy decision in the end.
“It has been quite a whirlwind. On Sunday Spider left, and on Sunday evening while I was away to the airport to go to Rome for a few days I was speaking to (club president) Garry (Farquhar).
“Last night there was a board meeting and they decided to offer me the position which I have taken. So it has all happened quickly.”
MacKinnon’s first aim is to try and stave off interest in some of Jags’ title-winning squad, with players like Jack Murray and Max Barry attracting interest both from higher league sides and fellow north outfits.
He will also look to appoint his own assistant in time, but said he will continue to work with existing staff like player coach Hamish ‘Squish’ Munro, goalkeeping coach Darren Strong and physio Davie Young.
He said he had already compiled a list of transfer targets alongside Stewart in an effort to make Buckie even stronger next term.
“It is teamwork and that goes from the players to the coaching staff,” MacKinnon said. “Not one person can do it all, ultimately someone has to take responsibility and make a team decision if there’s choices to be made, but 99.9 percent of the time, Spider and I were on the same page or very, very close.
“So that should keep a bit of consistency in what we do next season. There’s not an awful lot needing changed at the football side of things. We have been challenging for a few seasons, we won the league and we go again.
“You can be the victim of your own success. The players have been tremendous and guys like Jack and Max - and a few others - are under contract. If opportunities from higher levels come in, we would obviously have to look at it.
“But right now my focus is on trying to keep the squad together as best I can and making additions.
“Myself and Graeme were talking about doing this anyway a few weeks ago and we had identified players to try and bring in. You have to strengthen, you can’t rest on your laurels.
“Either way, if players are going out through the quality that we had last season, we still need to make additions. We will look to cement our place as one of the top teams in the league and challenging on all fronts yet again.
“Geographically the club is placed centrally, bang in the middle between Inverness and Aberdeen so that helps us have a larger catchment area than some other teams.
“You also have the fact that you are always playing in front of a crowd. That is brilliant and I have experienced that myself, you don’t want to be playing in front of a small puckle of people, it’s fantastic having a good crowd to play in front of.”
The pitch recovered towards the end of the season and the club is sorting that out now and the new floodlights are getting installed. It is a great place to play football. I have been there since my first pre-season in 2006, so I have been there a long time and that is because of the enjoyment of being there and that it is a good selling point for me to bring people in.
MacKinnon won the Highland League title with Jags in back-to-back seasons as a player, and has added two more titles as an assistant in 2017 and 2024.
He knows adding to that honours list as manager in his own right won’t be easy, as Buckie will be the team to be shot down by all rivals next term.
“I have won the title four times now and we have only successfully defended it once before.
“When we won it in 2017, we had a lot of injuries after that season, but we are going back in next season and I am hoping that Kevin Fraser and Darryl McHardy will both be back for pre-season and give us some massive strength.
“As long as we don’t lose too many boys from our success last season, we will be in good shape to go back in there at full tilt and I’m looking forward to it.”
