Brechin City manager Michael Paton has disclosed that he wants to follow in the footsteps of former Hibernian winger and current Stoke City manager Michael O’Neill.
Paton, who is the youngest manager in Scottish football at 31-years-old, hopes that he can do as well as O’Neill has done in his managerial career.
Played under former national team manager
O’Neill, whose high point as manager was leading Northern Ireland to the European Championship in 2016, also started his coaching career at Brechin City, where Paton played under him.
“I would love to follow in the footsteps of Michael and what better club to start at. He is an inspiration where he is now, he started at part-time level and I took a lot of experience and tips” he said (BBC Sport).
“Even at such a young age, Michael would stay an extra half an hour after training and work on my touch, my turning, my finishing and you could see he was a real player’s manager.”
Aiming for play-offs
Paton also disclosed that he is hoping that Brechin can reach the play-offs in League Two this season. He recently took over from Mark Wilson as manager, and is looking for his first win as manager. However, he seems confident that won’t be long in coming.
“I have played in every league in Scotland now, I know what it takes to win these types of leagues. We are only six games in, we have still got 21 left, I don’t see why we can’t be aiming for the play-offs. I know we are sitting on three points but if you look at the gap between us and the play-offs you go on a run of four or five games and you are close” Paton concluded.