KEVIN Deeney says he would take the Irvine Meadow manager’s job beyond this season.

It comes after the former assistant manager took over the hotseat on an interim basis until the end of the season - following the surprise resignation of George Grierson.

Meadow were left rocked last Friday, February 17 when the former boss left the club with immediate effect.

It came only five months into his reign as Medda manager, after he replaced co-managers Colin Spence and James Latta, who resigned back in September.

It has been a rollercoaster tenure for Grierson, but he will leave Meadow Park with the club in a better position than when he first joined them.

Irvine Meadow sat only one place above the relegation zone in the West of Scotland Premier League when he joined though had climbed up to seventh place by the time he left.

Medda, in fact, led the league at one point during Grierson's tenure, however recent results have taken a turn.

After back to back 2-1 wins against Troon and Cumnock, they failed to follow this up, losing their last two matches prior to this weekend 5-0 to Darvel and 4-3 to Cambuslang Rangers.

So former assistant Deeney was forced to take charge on Saturday, as Medda travelled to face Hurlford.

And with the sides locked on points, Medda moved ahead of their Ayrshire rivals following a 1-0 victory.

It came as a Callum Graham slotted a first half penalty to hand Deeney a win and clean sheet in his first game in charge.

And while he described the latter part of the game as “the most boring second half of football you’ll ever watch”, it appears the game has given Deeney the managerial bug.

He also explained how he and the rest of the coaching team came into the role - at least on an interim basis.

Deeney said: “I didn’t want to not step up, and think ‘no I better go away’, it leaves the club in a bit of a position.

“None of us really want to leave, we love it down here – we’re happy just to see what happens.”

And when asked if he had plans to stay beyond this season, he told the Times: “I would take it – obviously you could phone me in two weeks and I go ‘you know what this has been more than I thought’ and that answer might change.

“Things are going well just now, so of course I’m thinking ‘yeah I’ll do this’.

“But in two weeks time it might be totally different.

“The players need to be happy with what’s happening, me and the coaching staff need to be happy and ultimately the club and the committee need to be happy.”

He also paid homage to the departing Grierson, but said “it was a surprise but not a shock” that he left his role as “he’s just had a lot on his plate”.

Deeney added that he felt Grierson had “done too much” and was now “burnt out” after his return to management.