JOHN POTTER admits that his appointment as Pars manager was “surreal” but is desperate to bring success to the club he has always supported.

A hectic 24 hours saw the Athletic’s under-20s coach step up to take control of first team affairs until the end of the season after Jim Jefferies’ departure on Tuesday and he described the chance as a “great achievement”.

The 35-year-old, who joked that he lives “one of my own clearances” away from East End Park, follows in the footsteps of Harry Melrose, Jim Leishman and fellow High Valleyfield native Bert Paton in both playing for and managing the club.

And although he played down comparisons with the latter, he told Press Sport that he was excited about the “unbelievable opportunity” he now has.

He said, “It has been a mad couple of days but I knew that it was maybe coming.

“The manager was open with Neil and myself and we had chats over a couple of days. We got together on Monday and the manager spoke with the board, we then met with them and it was all agreed.

“It’s come around a bit quicker than I thought but I’m delighted to manage the club that I’ve always supported. I was born in Dunfermline and I used to come to games when I was younger, as did my family and friends so it’s a big achievement for me.

“I played here when I was quite young and quite old and I can walk just around the corner to East End Park so I am proud. I had a discussion with the manager around a year-and-a-half ago and I’d opportunities to go to a couple of other clubs, so Jim asked what I wanted to do.

“I told him that I wanted to become a first team manager and he said to stay here because my chance would come. I was happy here with the work I was doing and happily it has come to fruition.” Potter has received widespread praise for his work with the club’s youngsters since he was appointed by Jefferies to lead the under-20s two years ago as they reached the 2013 Youth Cup final and the last eight last season.

Under his guidance, Ross Millen, Lewis Martin, Ryan Williamson and Lewis Spence have graduated to become first-team regulars and Potter continued, “The gaffer was fantastic and allowed me to get involved in coaching. It was a big learning curve for me and latterly I’ve been involved with the first team, giving team talks and working on the training pitch. He gave me his blessing to take the job and I still speak with him regularly.

“But I have to be honest to myself. There’s no point in me trying to be anybody else and I have to do my own thing. When I was a player I learned a lot from Gus MacPherson and Andy Millen on the coaching side (while at St Mirren) as well as from Jim over the last couple of years.

“My phone’s been non-stop with messages so it is a wee change from what I was doing. But I’ve seen a bit of that side and it is something that I hoped was coming so it is my responsibility now and we’ll see where it takes us.” The new man has been preparing his players for today's (Saturday's) crunch promotion clash with Stranraer and is set to meet with the board next week for discussions over improving his squad with the January transfer window set to open.

Gozie Ugwu and Sorel Chemin are out of contract at the end of the month and he will also assess his options in recruiting a new coach for the under-20s, continuing, “We’ve had a quick chat with the board but we’ll leave things until next week because I want to focus on Saturday’s game.

“There are points that we need to look at and although I have my own views on things, we aren’t going to rush into anything. At the moment we’ll all chip in to help with the 20s and although I have a couple of ideas on that, we’ll just need to wait and see.

“We had the players in yesterday and we know that we’ve been inconsistent so far this season and need to improve. It’s our job to get more out of the players and confidence is a big thing in football. They know that they’re good players but they have to go out and do it. They’re a good group to work with but at the moment there’s not enough of them performing to their capabilities. I’ve been on their side as well but it’s my job on the line."