'Mark should have completed season from hell' - new Carluke Rovers interim boss Kenny Neill reveals he attempted to get Weir to stay

New Carluke Rovers interim gaffer Kenny Neill believes former boss Mark Weir was wrong to quit last week, as Weir had already negotiated his way through a large chunk of “the season from hell”.
Kenny Neill (right) thought that Mark Weir (also pictured) should have stayed as Carluke Rovers boss until the end of the season (Pic by Kevin Ramage)Kenny Neill (right) thought that Mark Weir (also pictured) should have stayed as Carluke Rovers boss until the end of the season (Pic by Kevin Ramage)
Kenny Neill (right) thought that Mark Weir (also pictured) should have stayed as Carluke Rovers boss until the end of the season (Pic by Kevin Ramage)

Neill – a candidate to get the manager’s job on a permanent basis – will be in charge when Rovers resume their West of Scotland League Conference B campaign at Royal Albert on Saturday, January 8.

He told the Carluke and Lanark Gazette: “I know Mark has got a lot of family commitments. But I felt as if he should have seen the season out because this is the season from hell.

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"It’s a combination of the number of injuries we’ve had, Covid, and the way the conferences are set up. They’re not proper leagues so you’re playing teams that are levels above you.

"Everybody knew we were going to have to grind this season out almost.

"To go this far, we’re nearly there, I was trying to convince him that next year would be much better.

"But obviously I think the combination of results and the stuff going on with his boys, he’d just had enough.

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"Especially with Aaron (Weir’s eldest son) being down at Ayr United, that’s a massive commitment for Mark. Obviously he has three other boys as well – Lucas is training with Livingston, Jak does a bit of running and Oli is only about three so I can imagine how much it takes to look after them.

"I think becoming the permanent manager is definitely something I would have to consider. Obviously I’ve stayed on so we’ll see what happens from there.”

Rovers are accepting applications for the manager’s role – email club secretary Steven Kane at [email protected] by 5pm on Friday, January 14.

Neill is still in the process of thinking out who to bring in as interim assistant manager.

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"Obviously we’ll look into that asap,” he said. “It’s my next priority.”

Ahead of the January resumption of play, Rovers are 11th with 20 points from 23 games.

Their last game – which turned out to be Weir’s final one in charge – was a 6-0 hammering at Ashfield on Saturday, December 18.

Weir has no plans to return to football management. He plans to become a season ticket holder at Motherwell.

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