THE elder of the McLean brothers, Willie, resigned as Motherwell manager 20 years ago this week, as poor results dragged the Lanarkshire side into relegation trouble.

McLean, who joined Motherwell from Queen of the South in 1974, took Motherwell to two Scottish Cup semi-finals in his three-year reign and admits that it was a difficult, but necessary, decision to quit.

''It was an excellent time,'' he recalls. ''We made it into the premier division in my first season and it was a very exciting period. My finest memory was the semi-final against Rangers, although we lost. We were winning after an hour, but went down 3-2 after a dubious penalty decision.''

However, McLean's luck was about to come to an end, as results and individual performances started to wane. He added: ''One or two things just started going against us. Willie Pettigrew went off form and he was our main striker, generally there was a lull in our play.''

It was not long, though, before he was back in the management saddle again. He accepted an offer to join first division Ayr United and spent four years trying to get them back into the top flight, without success. ''It was difficult,'' he confesses.

''They were a good first division team, with guys like Robert Connor, Steve Nicol, and Alan McInally breaking through, but the expectations were to get back into the premier league and time was against us.''

In 1983, he jetted off to Cyprus to manage Pezeporokos, the first of two year-long stints at the helm. His leadership qualities steered them towards victory in the Cypriot cup, but unfortunately it slipped away from their reach during extra time in the final.

''I enjoyed my time over there,'' said McLean. ''The standard was like our first division, but it was difficult because my kids were going through school and I was away from my family. One year at a time was enough.''

He returned to these shores a year later to succeed brother Tommy as Morton manager, but only spent a year at Cappielow as the move did not give him the job satisfaction he craved. He said: ''That was the most disappointing time of my career and I was just glad to get away from the whole situation.''

After a spell as No.2 at Hamilton Accies, McLean, whose playing days were spent at Airdrie, Sheffield Wednesday, Clyde, Queen of the South and Raith Rovers, became the first SFA community development officer.

Based at Fir Park, he is responsible for promoting the game in North Lanarkshire at grass roots level - teaching thousands of schoolkids the fundamentals of the game. He said: ''We have the Davie Cooper Soccer Academy at Fir Par and kids take part in training after school. We also hold SFA courses and there is something on every day where kids can learn the basic skills.''

It's a job which has brought him much satisfaction but, although he says management is no longer for him, he still misses some aspects of being in the hot-seat, he confessed: ''Coaching is the part I miss most - I do sometimes miss working with professional players."