Glenn Gibbons: Beware curse of third place

Any would-be kingmaker with an urge to arrange the coronation of Stuart McCall may be well advised to postpone the big event in the cause of avoiding premature enthronement.

While leading Motherwell to third place in the Scottish Premier League is indisputably an achievement of great distinction, it is also one that carries a disconcerting historical failure to stand up to long-term scrutiny.

In the 14 completed seasons since the formation of the SPL in 1998, eight different teams have occupied this meritorious position, their managers at the time accorded their due by an appreciative public (apart, of course, from Rangers under Alex McLeish in 2006, when it was considered something of a disgrace).

It has been a notable feature of the phenomenon, however, that so many of the heroes of their day have subsequently been visited by so much wretchedness that their most memorable season could almost be regarded as the source of their decline and fall.

A handful of examples should be sufficient not only to discourage those who would champion McCall’s case, but to persuade the man himself of the need to remain relatively unheralded for fear of tempting a mischievous providence.

The first unlikely third-place finishers – indeed, they could safely be regarded as the most improbable of all – were Livingston, who achieved the feat at the end of their first season in the top league in 2002. In charge was Jim Leishman, whose next managerial assignment, as successor to David Hay at Dunfermline, was brief and mainly painful, lasting just over a year between ’05 and ‘06.

In the SPL’s inaugural season, Kilmarnock’s extraordinary achievement might have been considered a powerful blast-off for the managerial career of Bobby Williamson, but he would spend two largely uncomfortable years at Hibernian before even shorter and less productive turns at Plymouth Argyle and Chester City before escaping to his present post as coach of the Uganda national team.

McCall, of course, need look no further than his own club for a reminder of the potential dangers of what he has just achieved. It was Mark McGhee who steered Motherwell into third a mere four years ago, his “triumph” followed quickly by a short-lived, mainly disastrous term of office at Aberdeen. McGhee is now with Bristol Rovers, who have just finished in the lower half of Division Two of the Football League.

Celtic supporters are unlikely to take kindly to the reminder that Hibernian’s climb to third place in 2005 would persuade the club’s directors that Tony Mowbray was the man to replace Gordon Strachan in June, 2009. The Englishman’s tortuous tenure was mercifully terminated after nine months.