Stevie Campbell admits he experienced mixed emotions when he watched Dundee United fall at the final hurdle in their bid to bounce straight back up into the Premiership.
The Tangerines suffered play-off agony at the hands of Hamilton last weekend, losing out by just one goal over two legs against the top-tier side.
Campbell, of course, previously spent a decade at Tannadice in charge of a youth set-up that brought through a conveyor belt of talent including the likes of Johnny Russell, Ryan Gauld and Stuart Armstrong.
Now though, the 49-year-old is coaching at Brechin City and he was part of Darren Dods’ backroom team that helped guide the Angus side to a promotion of their own into the Championship.
That means games next season against United and Campbell admits he cannot wait to return to Tannadice with Brechin while the return fixtures at the Glebe will be financially huge for the part-time side.
However, his joy is tinged with sadness that Tangerines boss and fellow Dundonian Ray McKinnon could not take the club back up.
Campbell said: “I watched United’s play-off games on Thursday and Sunday and I had mixed emotions.
“It is brilliant for Brechin City to be in the same league as United financially.
“Of course it will be good to go back to Tannadice but I didn’t think it would be in this role with Brechin.
“It will be a strange day for me because regardless of how it ended for me, I had 10 great years there.
“I think I had a brilliant record of helping produce young talent.
“So although it was a well-documented controversial end to my time at United, it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to go back there and see some old faces.
“I was gutted for some of them when they didn’t get promotion.
“Being a Dundee lad, I have known people like Raymie and Darren Taylor (head of football operations) for years and I would like nothing better than for them to do well for themselves.
“Nothing changes because of what happened for me at United.
“But when I go back to Tannadice, I will just have to remember to go into the away dressing-room and dug-out which will be very strange for me!”
A week before United missed out on going up, Brechin secured their promotion against all the odds.
After beating the full-timers of Raith Rovers in the semi-final of the play-offs, they then went one better by triumphing over highly-fancied Alloa in the final, winning thanks to a nerve-shredding penalty shoot-out.
It was an incredible achievement for everyone connected with the club, especially manager Darren Dods and Campbell admits he is astonished other teams have not shown an interest in the Glebe gaffer.
He said: “The job Darren has done is amazing.
“We go all the way back to our Inverness days and then we were at United for a lot of years.
“Lee Bailey is the No.2 who is a friend of mine from our Livingston days as well.
“I like to think we are a good team. We are on the phone to each other every night.
“Darren is so dedicated. He works in performance schools but he is really serious about management.
“In fact I am flabbergasted that he hasn’t been linked to other clubs.
“Dodsy is the most unassuming guy in the world and he has never mentioned it but myself and Bails have.
“Plenty jobs have come up the way football is over the course of this year alone.
“So I am stunned that he hasn’t been the front runner or even quoted for many of the jobs that have come up.
“But I do think if he continues the way he is going, then he will be in the future.
“We know next season will be difficult as there are only two part-time teams, us and Dumbarton.
“But there’s the benchmark for us – Dumbarton have stayed up as a part-time team.
“Most people will expect us to be beaten every week but we will try to make it difficult for other teams.
“A lot of sides will not fancy coming to the Glebe.”
The final whistle at Alloa’s Indodrill Stadium was greeted with sheer delight by the Brechin fans who had travelled to the game – including two of Campbell’s former youth products, John and Harry Souttar who are now at Hearts and Stoke respectively.
Campbell added: “It was a really good moment for me at the end to see them.
“I still keep in touch with them but I hadn’t spoken with Harry for a while.
“They were there are the end with all the fans which was brilliant.
“It was a great moment and I gave them a big hug.
“Harry was wearing his Stoke red and white gear so it looked like Brechin.
“He had travelled over five hours to get there so it really hit home to me that’s their club.”
