Michael Kerr has admitted that leaving the manager’s position at Enniskillen Rangers was no easy decision after stepping down following six trophy laden years in charge of the Ball Range based club.
Kerr says that that it has been an emotional few days for him since informing the club of his decision but he is adamant that the time is right for a new manager to take the reins.
Any new manager is going to have massive shoes to fill with Ker’s six years seeing the ‘Gers lift three Junior Cups in a row as well as back to back league title.
“I just feel the time is right for somebody else to come in and freshen it up with a new voice and give the players a lift and a boost. I don’t want to be hanging about and getting frustrated and maybe giving out to players because a lot of those lads are my friends for life. 
“I thought the Covid break might have recharged me but I wasn’t 100 percent when I went back and that’s when it started to cross my mind.
“I’ve always said to myself that if I felt it was going a bit flat or if I wasn’t getting exactly what I wanted out of the players that I would step away.
“From my own point of view, I thought I brought it as far as I could but I feel I have left the club in a good position on the pitch. There is a good squad there and we haven’t had the worst start to the season,” said Kerr.
Kerr informed the club of his decision on Saturday and stresses that it was not a call that he made lightly.
“It has been a tough few days to be honest since I let John Ross Armstrong know on Saturday after the game. I only let the players know on Tuesday and emotionally it was very hard, it was draining. It wasn’t a decision that was taken lightly, the club is very, very close to my heart and I admits there was tears shed,” he added.
However, Kerr has no intention of quitting the club and will be involved in appointing his successor.
“I have spoken to John Ross and Malachy Love about making sure that we make the right appointment and that is something that I will be involved in.”
And he says that he wants to help bring through the next batch of young players at the club.
“I might be stepping away from the management side of it but I’m an Enniskillen Rangers person and I will stay be about the club. Jay Glass is taking over the reserves and there is a lot of young lads about it so I would like to go play a bit of football for the reserves and enjoy it without the pressure of management and hopefully help Jay help those young lads along as well.”
In terms of playing again with the first team, Kerr says he will have that conversation with the new manager.
“Whenever we get that person appointed I will have a good chat with him but I don’t want that person thinking they have to bring me in. I want to make sure that person is as comfortable as possible in that position and doesn’t feel that they have to put me in or feel that they are under any scrutiny that I’m sitting in the changing room as a player,” he explained.
Looking back on his time as player-manager with the ‘Gers, Kerr admits that he didn’t have the greatest of starts although things improved greatly as the club became the top team in Junior football in the country.
“If I look back at my first four games for Rangers; we didn’t score and I’m sure the people who took me on at the time, Mark Conway and Enda Love, were thinking ‘what have we down here’. They took a risk putting me in charge but thankfully it came good and over the years we have been really successful and we have really improved both on and off the pitch.
“I knew when I came in that there was a good core of players there with Burleigh, Crozier, Johnston, Joe Doogan and I added the likes of Ciaran Smith, Adam Wallace, and Richie Johnston came along and we really flourished.
“It has been a fantastic six years and has gone so much better than I ever envisaged.
“For myself and the family Rangers has been our whole life. My oldest girl, Annie Mae is six now and I was appointed two weeks before she was born so she has been at Rangers all her life so far, she is there every Saturday,” said Kerr.
He also is keen to praise the input of his management team, especially Tony Roofe and Stephen McFrederick.
“Donal Reilly was there the first year but that was a tough year when we regrouped and then Donal had to move on. Tony and Freddie then came in and they were still with me. Those two boys have been two rocks to me, they have been the mainstays and I’m so grateful to them.”
So, what games stick out as the most memorable over the six years?
“The night that we beat Newry Celtic in the Junior Cup semi-final was one of the best night’s, maybe because it was under lights and we were unbelievable that night. Also, I will never forget for the final pulling up and leading that team out to Windsor and then about two and a half hours later leading the boys out of Windsor with the Junior Cup in my hands, that was brilliant.
“My first aspiration when I took over though was I would love to win the league title back, they hadn’t won it since 1999 and then in 2017 we did it. It went down to the last game against Strathroy and there was 600 or 700 at the Ball Range that Thursday night. 
“We had just come off the back of six games in 11 days and this was our seventh in 13 days and the first two of that seven we drew so we had to win five in a row. We won the other four and then we had Strathroy and we beat them 3-0 and that was unbelievable,” he said.