Fenwick in line to become Shetland manager

Celtic player Neil Fenwick. Photo: Kevin Jones

Lerwick Spurs player Neil Fenwick is expected to be named the new Shetland senior football manager.

The Shetland Football Association (SFA) has only interviewed one candidate for the vacant role since advertising it in September.

It is understood that Lerwick Spurs player/coach Fenwick is the only candidate and was interviewed by the association earlier this month.

It had been thought that Fenwick’s Spurs manager Davy Macdonald was interested in applying for the position. The news this week that one of Macdonald’s own players is now the preferred candidate will come as a surprise to many in the sport locally.

Fenwick had been coaching the Lerwick side’s reserve team but stepped down at the end of the 2019 season.

The SFA committee will meet again on Thursday 5th March, with the appointment expected to be confirmed at that meeting or just before.

The football association first advertised the role in September 2019 – shortly after Kevin Main stepped down following his side’s narrow and dramatic Milne Cup victory on penalties.

However, in the five months between September and January it is understood that nobody had applied for the position.

The SFA itself advised potential applicants that the role would be “time-consuming”, and that it was “probably best suited” to a group of people rather than one individual.

The association was forced to re-advertise the role at the turn of the year, setting a new deadline of early February.

The Shetland team has been without a manager for more than six months now, and it is understood that the players have had to organise their own indoor training sessions before the new season.

The incoming manager will only have around four months to prepare the side for a Milne Cup defence against Orkney in Kirkwall.

Fenwick declined to comment yesterday.