OUTGOING Alloa Athletic gaffer Jack Ross has tipped the squad he has left behind to go on and clinch promotion without him.

The 40-year-old manager, who will replace Alex Rae as St Mirren manager this week, was delighted to end his tenure in Clackmannanshire with an emphatic 4-2 win away to Welsh Premier League outfit Bala Town in the Irn Bru Cup last weekend, and admits the Wee County will always have a special place in his heart.

Ross told Advertiser Sport: “It’s brilliant to get a win in my final game. I know I said before the game that it wasn’t about me, but equally I would have been sick if we had not won.

"The time I have had at the club has been terrific, this season obviously with the results, but also in all my time the performances have been so positive, so I am delighted.

“It was a difficult decision to leave to go to St. Mirren because of how much I enjoy the job with Alloa Athletic, how good a relationship I have with the chairman, and with the rest of the board, as well as the people all around the club.

"When I first experienced football from the early days at Camelon Juniors with my dad, that’s where I grew up watching football and that has a real affinity for me.

“I played nearly 200 games for Clyde and although I have only been at Alloa just under a year, I actually feel the same affinity for this club and it will not go away.

"I don’t often get the chance to thank supporters personally, but I did that after the game and I will be a regular visitor back at the club when opportunities allow that to happen. It has been a brilliant experience for me and at the right time, it has been great on so many levels.

“I have said to the players in the dressing room, I don’t hope they achieve promotion at the end of this season, but I expect it.

"I said if they go on and achieve what we set out to do at the start of this season, trust me, I will be as proud as they will be because I feel I will have played a part in it. I would love them to do it because they are certainly good enough and dedicated enough to do it.”

Ross reckons his predecessor will be walking into a dream scenario at the Wasps with a squad full of talent, who are in contention for promotion and already into the last eight of the Irn Bru Cup.

The former Clyde and Falkirk defender was delighted with the performance of the players in his final game in charge and believes they deserve extra credit for producing that type of form after such a turbulent week at the club.

He said: “I thought in the first half the players showed they are a good team. The first half performance was terrific. I also felt we played like that last week particularly in the first half as well, it is a good team.

"I still said to the players there were bits in the second half where we could have done better, but being in a winning position so often that can happen.

“I know they will be in a lot more winning positions throughout the season, because they are a great group and there are some really talented players amongst them.

"Their whole approach to the game this week considering everything that has happened was first class, so they deserve great credit.

"“Whoever gets this job is a lucky man because it is a brilliant club with a great squad of players. They still have a great chance to achieve something this season, and having reached two Quarter Finals already this season, that in itself cannot be overlooked. To also be challenging at the right end of the league table is very good and a great platform to kick on again from here.”

The new St Mirren boss admits he is excited by the challenge awaiting him in Paisley and admits he will look to apply the same philosophies that saw him turn around the fortunes of the Wasps inside a year.

Ross added: “It will be a big challenge moving to St. Mirren but I love coaching and it will give me far more time to coach, it is exciting for me. There is a million and one challenges which will be in front of me, but I am not one who will go in and threaten wholesale changes.

“I will do as I did here, and slowly put my own stamp on things. The reality will not start to sink in until over the next couple of days, but my overriding emotion just now is just delighted to see the Alloa Athletic players winning another game.”