Kieran McAnespie
Manager Profile

Biography

Kieran McAnespie’s appointment as Clydebank manager came as a surprise to many. As a player he came to prominence with St Johnstone in the Premier League scoring against both halves of the old firm. As a rising star he was one of four ‘future’ players taken to the 1998 world cup with the Scotland squad. He earned a move to Fulham which in terms of game time didn’t work out for Kieran. Arguably, this stymied his career at an age when he should have been playing. He had a couple of loan spells before heading back up the road to Falkirk. He spent the rest of his career in the lower leagues of Scotland with the likes of Alloa, Arbroath and Stirling Albion.

As he was coming to the end of his career he dropped into the Juniors, scoring against the Bankies when he was at Kilbirnie Ladeside. When the Clydebank manager’s position became available, Kieran was coaching at Glenafton. The Bankies board were impressed with his and Marc McCulloch’s vision and he was appointed on the 19th of January 2017 but officially took over team matters on the 23rd.

Clydebank were having a very disjointed season in 2016-17 which led to Budgie McGhie losing his job. When Kieran took over the club were still in with a shout of promotion, but had a job on his hands trying to get the best out of a clearly de-motivated side. This difficulty was magnified by the loss of four of his first six matches. By the time April came the club were in 7thposition in the league and did not look anything other than a mid-table side. Then something changed. Nicky Little was returned to his forwards role and with the assistance of a rejuvenated Burbidge and Shelvey the Bankies went on a phenomenal six match winning streak to finish an unlikely 2nd place earning promotion to the Super Premier.

It’s fair to say that Kieran managed to get a sub-standard side into the Premier League. With the loss of Little and Burbidge in the close season – easily the clubs two best players – he had his work cut out. It would also be fair to say that his recruitment for that season wasn’t great and this led to a disastrous first half to the season with club only winning one of its first eleven matches.

As a young manager he learned quickly and wasn’t afraid to make changes. He very soon set about removing all the failed players from the squad and replaced them with others in positions he identified were problematic. There was a sea change in the season beginning with the capture of the Sectional League Cup very much against the odds against Pollok. From then on Clydebank’s fortunes were on the up and they finished 12 points ahead of the relegation positions.

Further positive recruitment saw the club have a great first half to the 2018-19 season. By the New Year the club were sitting proudly in second position and in the quarter finals of the Scottish Cup. Unfortunately, the club lost influential assistant Marc McCulloch due to work circumstances around this time and the club shortly lost to Hurlford in the Cup. With nothing much to play for the Bankies had a bit of a slump and ended the season in mid-table.

There was a sense of positivity at the start of the 2019-20 season with the early optimism giving way to some poor results in the league. For the first time Kieran was under pressure from the terraces with the up and down nature of results. It is at this time that it was announced that Kieran would be leaving the club due to joining the fire service.

Overall, Kieran McAnespie’s tenure can be seen as a success. He led the club to a promotion and a cup win. He subsequently went on to consolidate the club’s position in the Premier League and made further strides the following season comfortably finishing mid table after a strong start. At the time of his departure the Bankies had made an indifferent start to the campaign, but he certainly left the club in a better place than in the place he found it.