Prior to the unexpected shutdown of the football season, Aberdeen FC Women appointed Stuart Bathgate as their new co-manager.

Bathgate arrives from Westdyke Women and replaces Harley Hamdani who left the club to emigrate to Australia at the end of last season.

Stuart reflected on his new role which he believes was an opportunity he couldn’t let pass him by.

“I knew from dealing with Harley that he was moving on and the job then appeared at the tail-end of last year and I went in to have a chat with Gavin Levey.

“When the opportunity came up to come and work with this group of players and not only that, for me it was the opportunity to work within the infrastructure of the Aberdeen Football Club in terms of my own coaching progression. The opportunity to come in and work alongside the youth academy set-up at the club and to progress myself, as well as help the team, was one of those opportunities I couldn’t turn down”.

Bathgate arrives from Championship North side Westdyke where he began his coaching career.

“I’ve been at Westdyke since 2016, so I started my coaching off with those guys and got involved with the women’s team there towards the end of 2016. So I’ve been working within women and girl’s football since 2016 and as I stopped playing myself, I had a bit more time to put towards coaching the senior side of the game as well as the grass-roots side, so I got involved with the women’s team and it has just kind of gone from there”.

Westdyke were in the same division as the Dons last season giving the incoming co-manager an insight into his new team from the other side.

“We trained alongside the Aberdeen girls last season at Lawsondale, whilst Cormack Park was still being built.

“We were also in the same league so we played against them a couple times as well. I had seen the progression that had been made there with Emma and Harley, from my perspective having been on the receiving end of some of the performances last season it’s very different and I think seeing what the girls did last season was fantastic and it was great to see”.

Aberdeen in action against West Dyke last season

The former Westdyke boss is looking forward to working alongside co-manager Emma Hunter who herself has links to Bathgate’s former club.

“I met Emma around 2017 when she was involved with RGU and Emma was also heavily involved with Westdyke’s set-up back in 2010 when it was first starting. The experience that Emma’s got in the game is up there with anyone else I’ve ever coached with so it’s just fantastic. The time that Emma and I have spent off the training pitch and conversations we’ve had already about the whole philosophy that we’re trying to build around the team is a step up for me which is one of those things that you relish”.

As his former club trained alongside his new last season, Bathgate gained a bit of insight to the Dons squad.

“I got to know some of the girls last season on a Tuesday and Thursday, just having a chat before training in passing but apart from that I didn’t know any them too well.

“Having trained alongside them and seen them in action during training, it wasn’t necessarily unexpected for me that they did so well. When you saw the effort and the work they put in and their determination as a group, the fact they achieved what they did was no real shock to be to be honest”.

The abrupt postponement of the season has meant that Bathgate’s time at the club has been limited so far.

“I think we’ve had five sessions since I came in, I had been waiting a fair while for everything to be made official and the paperwork to go through, so I think Emma and the girls all knew I was coming in but it was maybe another three weeks before we all got together. I came along to watch the Hearts and Kilmarnock games at the start of the season and it was after the Kilmarnock match that I got in for the first session”.

Despite time on the training field with the squad not being possible with the ongoing situation, Bathgate is still connected with Emma and the players as he continues to get to know the squad.

“It’s just been a case of getting to know each other on both sides, me and the players. I need to understand on a player level what makes them tick, how they train and play. It’s the basics of getting to know the team so I’ve got a bit of catching up to do and it’s frustrating that we’re now in the situation that we are in that I can’t do that although we are all staying in touch whilst we’re not together”.