Brora Rangers face East Kilbride in the League Two play-off semi finals as club benefactor pays tribute to impact of manager in treble success
BENEFACTOR Ben Mackay paid tribute to manager Steven Mackay after leading Brora Rangers to a historic treble this season.
Brora secured their fifth Highland League title earlier this month and also won the North of Scotland Cup and Highland League Cup.
Now they are preparing to try and win their biggest ever prize of entering the SPFL as they look for success in the League Two play-offs.
Brora Rangers head to Lowland League champions East Kilbride in the first leg of the semi final on Saturday, with the second leg taking place at Dudgeon Park on Saturday, May 3.
The winner will face whoever finishes bottom between Bonnyrigg Rose or Forfar Athletic in the play-off final for a place in the division next season.
Steven Mackay returned to the club 12 months ago after leaving Nairn County as he replaced Ally Macdonald as manager.
He was previously manager of the Cattachs between 2018 and 2021.
Ben Mackay said that as soon as Steven told him that he wanted to return as manager there was no need to advertise the position.
He said his faith in him more than paid off as the club celebrated their most successful season ever.
He said: “The manager knows this club inside out. Steven was one of my first signings when Davie Kirkwood was manager in what I called the revolution days. He was desperate to come back and when I knew that, I didn’t advertise the job. The minute I knew he wanted the job, it was his.
“We hadn’t spoken for two years when he was at Nairn County, but he had told them he was stepping down and looking to do something different. He told me he was extremely interested in the club. He wasn’t bothered about details of contracts, he just wanted to come back.
“Brora gave him a platform to win things, he saw it as his football club and he wanted to come back. I said to Steven that he was pushing on an open door and we would love to have him back. My biggest fear was telling the board that I had hired him without speaking to them! But they were as delighted as I was when they realised what was happening.”
Speaking about Steven Mackay, the benefactor said: “Steven is a disciplined and thoughtful individual in everything he does. He came with a business plan for the football club. He came to me with eight key performance indicators that was written as part of the plan.
“The team didn’t meet two of those indicators, which included scoring 88 points or above. We only scored 82 points but it was still good enough to win the league.
“They also failed to concede less that 25 goals in the entire league season as we conceded 31.
“But they passed the other six key indicators, four of which were winning the Highland League, Highland League Cup, North of Scotland Cup and getting to the third round of the Scottish Cup.
“Even the day we won the Highland League Cup last week, he told me that if we are still in the Highland League next season, he would be fixing the other two performance indicators.”
Read the full interview with Ben Mackay in the Northern Times this week by clicking here.