There has been a changing of the guard at Logie Park this week, with long-serving manager Kevin Walker taking up the vacant post at Highland League outfit Lossiemouth, and being replaced by his assistant Iain Macleod.

The C licence coach was approached by the board to take over, and admitted that although everything happened quickly, he was in no doubt with regards taking the job when it was offered to him as he revealed exclusively to the 'Gazette'.

"Everything did happen quite quickly, although Kevin had mentioned that he was planning on applying for the Lossie job," he said. "Once I found out that he had been successful, then it was a matter of waiting to see what the committee were planning.

"They obviously had a meeting pretty quickly and Charlie Watt, the president, then offered me the job. I always would have wanted to give it a go, having worked with Kevin and Brian Minty, and then just Kevin over the last five years."

Macleod has moved quickly to put together a management team that mixes experience with a friendship, by bringing in two men he has known for some considerable time.

"Steven McIntosh (Toshy) is coming in as my number two and Alan Angus (Bowff) is joining the coaching team and will also be taking his coaching badges in the coming weeks.

"I have known them all for years and they know Forres football inside out. I have been there since 16 and Toshy has been there a few times in between 10 years in the Highland League. Bowff is also one who has been on the scene for some time, so we are all well acquainted."

However, a ruling from the Scottish Junior Football Association last week has meant that the new management team will not know which league they are playing in until just days before the start of the new campaign.

An appeal from Deveronside JFC was upheld in Glasgow, and subsequently the Jags will face the Banffers in a Superleague play-off game to decide which team plays in the top division and which one will feature in the First Division.

Macleod added: "I don't really know what league we are going to be playing in, which is not the best of preparations. The play off game is taking place on the August 4, and there are two sides to that. Firstly, the Grill League Cup starts just three days later, so we literally will be pretty much starting the season before we know where we are, but on the other side of the coin we at least have the chance to be prepared for that game.

"We will look to get a good pre-season, and to that end we should have plenty of bodies. We have already spoken to the guys, and they are pretty much all coming back, apart from a couple who Kevin will be taking with him to Lossie to have a look at.

"The team is pretty much entirely from Forres, and while we have some other names from outwith the Forres area that we will have a look at, the majority of the team will be Forres boys, which is important."

Walker's legacy at Logie Park has been one of developing young players and supplying local Highland League sides and the new management team will hope to follow in his footsteps.