GUS MacPHERSON was up at 6am, travelled 100 miles and signed his first player for Queen of the South before he was formally introduced as the club's new manager yesterday.... reports the DAILY RECORD
The deal to secure Stephen McKenna, completed in Pollok Shopping Centre in Glasgow, meant MacPherson had three registered players for next season.
And without fear of contradiction, the Palmerston boss said: "Now the hard work begins."
A year after parting company with St Mirren and following near misses at other clubs he'd applied to, hard work is the last thing MacPherson is worried about.
He said: "The dugout is where I live, the game is where I belong.
"I've missed it and nothing else compensates for the loss of your place in football.
"I enjoyed the media work I've done on Radio Clyde and various television programmes.
"It's given me a fresh appreciation of what that side of the game is all about but none of it was ever the same as getting your hands dirty on a Saturday afternoon.
Challenge "When you're sitting and waiting for a job to crop up you're basically looking out for a managerial casualty elsewhere.
"It isn't nice but it's the nature of the business we're in."
MacPherson had his own disappointments while he was involved in the process of looking to replace men who'd lost their jobs.
He said: "I was interviewed by Swindon at the same time as John Hughes and I knew we both had good CVs to take into our interviews.
"Then I got home and turned on a television to see Paolo Di Canio arriving at the club from Italy and getting his first job in management.
"There's never any bitterness and you never fall out of love with the game when these things happen."
Those sentiments also apply to the way in which MacPherson left St Mirren after seven years of sterling work there.
He said: "Every manager has tales to tell about his club. I had five fantastic years at St Mirren. The two others were frustrating.
"People make decisions you don't always agree with but I have no regrets about my time there."
It's the time in between jobs that is the problem for managers with confidence in their ability but no vehicle to prove it. And MacPherson said: "I turned down the chance to go to Ross County and I regretted that decision two months after I made it. But it was my choice and I had to live with it.
"Then I got into the last three when Bristol Rovers were interviewing for a new manager. I suppose you could call that hitting the bar.
"When the chance came to go to Queen of the South I thought 'Do I hang about a while longer and wait for some other casualty - or do I get stuck into a hard job?' "I went for the second option and that phrase also describes what I face now at Palmerston. In football, there are problems, or else you can call them challenges. I go for the second option there as well."
The alarm that woke up MacPherson to begin his hectic first day on the job signalled the re-awakening of his enthusiasm for everything management entails.
Interest He said: "Andy Millen and myself are back as a team and starting at the bottom.
"I had to drive to Abington Services to meet my new chairman David Rae and get a contract from him to give to Stephen, my first signing target. Then I drove to Glasgow for signing talks with Stephen before getting in the car and going back to Dumfries to begin work at the ground.
"There are players to be signed and training facilities to be found before the squad reports in two weeks.
"But I feel like a whole person again. The telephone that has only rung to arrange games of golf for the past 12 months has now started to bring calls about players who might interest me.
"That's when you know you're back in business.
"The club has taken a bold step by remaining full time and my job is to make Queen of the South competitive while working with a tight group of players.
"I can't wait to get started."