ONE of the best success stories of 2016 has surely been the reinvigoration of Ardrossan Winton Rovers.

This time last season the 113-year-old North Ayrshire outfit were on a horrible downward spiral towards relegation from the Super First Division (they eventually dropped down as the third bottom placed club along with Greenock Bellshill Athletic and Maybole) and their sad demise also brought about a parting of the ways with highly regarded manager Chris Strain (Senior) and his long-standing backroom team cohorts John McColl and George Watt.

It’s no exaggeration to say the Winton’s fate was all but sealed by the time Sandy MacLean was installed as the new man at the helm in mid-April and it’s indicative of the many changes he has wrought ever since that his nowadays table-topping Ayrshire District League side boasts only three players – Ryan Caddis, Bobby Colligan and Darren Miller – from the 21-man strong playing squad he inherited.

These stats tell quite a tale yet the former goalkeeper refutes the suggestion he conducted a “gutting out” of the Winton Park dressing room.

He insisted: “A couple of the players were young lads still on the books of Stranraer and only in to help us make up numbers while a number of departures were forced upon me as a result of Irvine Meadow appointing Gareth Turner and Michael Wardrope as their new management team.

“They clearly had the ear of some of their ex-team-mates in our camp and I was left helpless to prevent the departures to Meadow Park of Ian Seymour, Connor Browning, Jarred Willet and Ben Carson…all players I wanted to keep on board.

“A few others were never going to be part of my plans and were released long before myself and No.2 Tam Jamieson who played in my Largs Thistle team that got to the Scottish Junior Cup Final got down to the difficult task of recruiting fresh faces.

“If I say so myself, we appear to have made a decent fist of it given there are hard-working and committed players sprinkled throughout the team, notably an outstanding goalkeeper in John Mullen, formerly of St Roch's and Blantyre Vics, as well as versatile pair Regan Ross and Mark Davidson and not forgetting Steven Tan, a midfielder who likes nothing better than to put his foot on the ball and make the team play passes.

“We’ve also brought in some younger Morton players such as ball-playing centre-back Luke Irvine and there’s also the relatively high profile signing of Liam Caddis whom people may recall from scoring for St Johnstone in the Uefa European League just three years ago.

“Liam’s acquisition was down to his brother Ryan asking if we could offer training facilities which we did and his qualities were very evident so we asked the question and to my surprise he agreed to sign a form.

“Liam is top notch and has got his mojo back so I won’t be in the least surprised if bigger teams are not watching his progress, but right now he’s an Ardrossan Winton Rovers asset with both him and Ryan able to play anywhere in the attacking third of the pitch.”

The Winton are at the halfway stage in their Ayrshire District League campaign and currently top the standings by a four points margin while their winning 10 and drawing one of their 11 games to date has supporters dreaming of McLean’s men emulating last season’s champions Girvan and remaining unbeaten.

The team boss said: “This is a very unpredictable league containing some cannon-fodder but also teams who will not feature in any promotion race yet are capable of taking points off the main challengers.

“Right now it’s looking like ourselves, Whitletts Vics, Kello Rovers and Darvel will be fighting out the top two spots but I also like the look of Annbank United whose side includes a number of Ayr United youngsters and as you might expect they play a lot of good football.

“Whitletts lead the chasing pack and we still have to play them twice so it’s a bit premature to be talking of unbeaten league campaigns if you ask me though I am delighted with the start we’ve made.”

MacLean admits to fixing up festive friendly matches against Auchinleck Talbot and Renfrew in order to test his young side’s mettle.

He revealed: “We played Hurlford United pre-season and took a 5-1 whipping but the experience was great for letting the lads know what the standards at the top of the pile are like.

“My hope is we can pick up a few more lessons from Talbot and Renfrew that will stand us in good stead going forward because looming on our horizon is a West of Scotland Cup contest against the current Super Premier leaders Rob Roy and I want us to give a good account of ourselves and show we can play at a higher level.”