Coaching in a Wheway wonderland

RANGERS coach Mac Gallienne is spending this Christmas in a Wheway wonderland. Third spot in the Cable & Wireless Priaulx table is just about the best present he could have asked for.

The renaissance continues at a club which, Gallienne argues, was in danger of going out of business when he got involved two-and-a-half seasons ago.

At the time he said he was there for the long haul. He would quit when his side won an Upton, which looked as far away as a Mike Bassett-style England call-up.

Now, although Rangers are still well behind Bels and North at the top of the local game, it does not look such a joke.

'Our aim this season was to get among Vale Rec, Saints and Sylvans and at the moment we're doing that. We're in that crowd and giving them a good game on a regular basis and taking points off each other,' Gallienne said.

He and his charges set themselves a target for the season. While he won't say what it was, the coach revealed his side were 'on the way'.

For most of his time in charge, Gallienne, whose side had not won a match for a couple of years when he took over, has wanted to double the points achieved the previous season. This year, they are well ahead.

'That doesn't surprise me,' he said, in a rare moment of self-congratulation.

Then he went all confessional.

'We've just got a good bunch of lads. I don't even class myself as a coach, to be honest. If I get the best 11 players available on any given day, I tend to get the best out of them and we can give anyone a game.'

In keeping with most of the Priaulx, the red-and-blacks are a young bunch. Captain Dave Parrott, at 26, looks quite senior alongside most of his colleagues.

For some time Gallienne was naming himself as a sub on Priaulx match days, such was the paucity of talent at the club. But there is no need now.

Instead there's a useful mix of youth development - the likes of Ross Allen, Tom Le Tissier, Arrian Green and the Ockleford brothers Aaron and Piers - pursued transfer targets such as Craig Carre and long-servers such as Parrott and Sam Bird.

The best capture of all this season has probably been former North youth striker Paul Prior. Gallienne remembered the young player from his Northfield days and coaxed him out of GFA retirement and into a run of goals, including an exquisite free kick the other day against his former club.

And a new coach can often polish up forgotten diamonds hanging around. Jon Robilliard was playing at centre forward in the Railway side.

Gallienne soon put a stop to that and has turned him into a very useful and dogged first-choice centre back who has also chipped in with a couple of vital goals this year.

If Rangers have a problem, it's an inability to hold on to the ball, exemplified when they play the better sides. But often in those games, Gallienne contends, his side are their own worst enemies. 'If we don't play football, we don't do ourselves justice.'

Gallienne has taken his motivational skills around the GFA. He ran the Jackson and then Priaulx at St Martin's while still very young for a coach, rubbing a few up the wrong way in the process. 'I was completely naive. I was probably the only one who wanted the job.'

Then he went to North, but could not force a change of fortunes there in a time of struggle, before eventually heading up to St Andrew's - via the Track, of course.

'I'm an easier-going person now. I enjoy my football and enjoy what I'm doing at Rangers.'

Gallienne smashed the myth that he took his side to Bailiff's Cross with the intention of creating a 'Fortress St Andrew's'. True, nobody enjoys a game there, but for Gallienne, the reasons behind the move were economic, not football.

'Financially, we were in dire straits. We wouldn't have a club now. Being here has kept us bonded as a team. There was no team bonding or spirit at the Track.'

So if the future looks bright at St Andrew's, what's Gallienne's next aim, apart from continued progress?

'I want to win trophies,' he said, defiantly. 'If I wanted to just turn up for a game of football I'd do Sunday league or business league.

'We want a successful football team and club facilities. We've got big plans for Rangers.'