For THE NEW SAINTS, 2017/18 was a season of change as Scott Ruscoe replaced Craig Harrison as manager, and in part one of a two-part review of the season, the TNS boss tells the tale of the season in his own words:

“I’d been working towards for the last few years and thought if I didn’t take the chance now, then something else would have come up elsewhere and I would have had to have taken that. I just wanted to take the club forward again and have my own stamp on the team.

It very much made it exciting that my first task for the season wasn’t the league but the Champions League which people would give their right arm for it, and because I’d been around the club for so long, I knew how important that game was.

I was thinking so many things and so many weeks ahead, I didn’t get chance to concentrate on the here and now. It was all a bit hazy and I couldn’t get to grips with the job or the first seven to 10 days; it was surreal. We’d obviously thought about what if Craig had left and what we would do and what we would go and do about it.

As for the European games against Rijeka, there’s still a huge feel of ‘what if’ for me. Especially when you look at the chances away in Croatia against a team with a budget of 15 million euros compared to ours. The goal they scored after four minutes, we just didn’t need to dive in and make that mistake to give the free-kick away.

But it was about how well we responded and then stayed in the game for 65 minutes, plus the chances we created and didn’t take. I still think what if we’d got the away goal? Coming away 1-1 or 2-1 would have put a totally different perspective on the home tie.

We didn’t get it and lost it 2-0, which isn’t the worst score-line but it meant we were always up against it in the second leg. But when we see that Rijeka got a point at AC Milan and got out of their Europa League group, you don’t feel so bad. It was an outstanding adventure for them. They were strong opposition and their results proved that.

Then we come to the first league game. I’d just been installed as full-time manager following the European campaign, and we lose 5-2 against a team in Bangor City that had been making the most noise about taking our title following my appointment.

I have to be honest and say it was one of the lowest times I’ve endured as a player and now as a coach. It was a low point; readers and fans may think that’s an over-exaggeration, but when you put everything into your life as a player for a club that you have an affinity with, to get beat 5-2 and you can’t understand why, it’s tough.

We were coming off the pitch and people were shouting that Craig wouldn’t have got beat by five at Bangor and the like, leading to everyone else questioning you too, then you have to ask yourself if I’m up to the challenge.

I didn’t get much sleep and we got the lads in the next day for a discussion, even though we got back late. We spoke about how it would never happen again, that I would never accept this happening again. We told them it was a one-off and everyone can have one-offs, but we also told the players that if they weren’t with me the come see me on Monday and if I feel you’re no longer any worth to the club, you can go.

That’s how strongly I felt about the situation but the next week was a major turning point in sorting out my first few months as a manager.

I didn’t make sweeping changes but we got the players on board straight away. I made three changes for the next few games as I felt we’d been a bit kinder to some players keeping them in.

We put in a superb performance in against Bala Town and I knew the players were with us, and that we were only a bad side for a week, or for as long as you accept it. The players didn’t accept, nor did we and we moved on quite quickly with an excellent run in the league.

Then came the Irn-Bru Cup which I loved. We don’t play enough midweek league games to put our title bid at risk, and these games would really perk the lads up like it did before, playing in different stadiums. That said, we played all our games at home! But we were tested against different teams, players, tactics, strengths and weaknesses – it was a super learning experience for us as staff working hard for players.

Back in the league, after the Bangor defeat, we kept six straight clean sheets and that’s when we knew the players were well on-board. We went back to basics and defended. We know our attacking football was second to none, but if we wanted to win the league, we had to build our foundation and the rest looked after itself.

Then came our second defeat against Barry Town at home, one of those days where we could’ve played all day and still not scored. But it was all about the reaction again because we went on a seven-game winning run straight after. A winning run is all well and good but sometimes a draw or a defeat can be the kick up the backside a team needs. It’s a reality check and shows players they’re not indispensable.

We then went to Newtown on Boxing Day and that win, where we cam back from 2-0 down at half-time, showed me the togetherness of a team that wanted to win the league.

n Part Two next week...