By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MICKY Colina has no hard feelings toward the club in which he built his name as a player.
The St Albans Saints’ longest ever serving player was sacked as their senior coach last week after what has been a dismal showing in State League One football this season.
Last Sunday proved to be the final straw that broke the camel’s back for Colina, after his Saints went down 5-0 to fellow battler FC Bulleen.
However, club senior committee member Joe Hovanjec insists the board’s move to let Colina go was not a knee-jerk reaction to the heavy loss.
“They’ll say this is just a knee-jerk reaction to a 5-0 loss, but it’s not the case,” Hovanjec said.
“We gave Micky a good, two full years.“
“There were some members in last year’s committee that felt that we needed to part ways to Micky, but we felt like we owed him the chance to do the job properly and get the playing staff back on even pars with where they should be.”
A stunned Colina spoke to Star a day after he was told of his sacking, admitting he didn’t see his demise coming despite only claiming one win from his last eight starts.
“I was pretty shocked initially, to be honest, and given Sunday’s result, I guess it’s always a hard pill to swallow,” Colina said.
“Given the fact we all shared a vision and as a club when we all sat down last year and set out on this journey to obviously rebuild the club – it’s one of those things where it surprised me a lot because I guess it was always going to be a long-term plan and a long-term vision and one that required patience and a lot of work on many fronts.
“Those who follow and care about it will see that it has been a very, very tough year in relation to playing staff and losing a lot of key individuals to long-term or season-ending injuries,” he said.
The Colina name is a prominent one at St Albans and Micky, while admittedly disappointed, insisted he will bear no ill-feeling toward the club going forward.
“Naturally, when something like this happens you’re disappointed,” Colina said.
“You’d be lying to say you’re not, but I’ve been around the block from a football point of view and it happens.”
Injured star Tom Pondeljak and under-21s coach Zeljko Kuzman will both take charge of the 10th-placed Saints with five games to come this season.
