Wayne Attard has stepped down as coach of St Andrew’s following the team’s wretched start to the BOV Premier League season.

St Andrew’s, promoted to the top flight last May after finishing runners-up behind neighbours Pembroke Athleta in Division One, are rooted to the bottom of the Premier League table with no points from their opening 12 games.

While the St Andrew’s committee are believed to have made no pressure on Attard to resign, the young coach made up his mind to relinquish his duties in the wake of his team’s 4-0 defeat to Valletta on Friday night.

Attard handed in his resignation on Saturday but it was not accepted immediately by the club’s hierarchy, headed by Jason Falzon, and Swiss football consultancy agency Talent11, led by Denis Guerra, who last summer took charge of the technical side of the St Andrew’s teams enrolled in MFA and Youth FA competitions.

The decision to part ways was made yesterday after a meeting between top club officials and Attard.

Attard had resigned from his post as Malta Under-19 coach in May to start his second stint at the helm of St Andrew’s. He replaced former Malta international Brian Said who failed to agree a new contract after guiding the club to promotion the previous season.

At a news conference last July, St Andrew’s insisted that they were firmly intent on retaining their policy of relying on young, homegrown players in the Premier League.

Their partnership agreement with T11 was also motivated by this philosophy as Guerra’s company focus on the promotion of youth talent but it soon became apparent that the St Andrew’s squad was not strong enough to cope with the rigours of top-flight football.

While the Saints do have a nucleus of exciting young players, the likes of Matthew Guillaumier, Kyrian Nwoko, Dale Camilleri and Jacob Walker, the foreign players who joined the club in the close season failed to make the desired impact, so much so that last month they released goalkeeper Diego Rossetto, defender Nicola Andreis and midfielder Luca Cosmai.

In the last three weeks, St Andrew’s signed two new foreign players, Eloy Edu Nkene, a defender from Equatorial Guinea, and Uzeh Edafe, the much-travelled Nigerian midfielder who made his debut in Friday’s defeat to Valletta.

There is a general acceptance at St Andrew’s that they urgently need to strengthen their squad in the coming weeks to revive their campaign but their no.1 priority is the appointment of a new coach to replace Attard who is expected to remain on the club’s youth coaching staff.

Guerra, currently in Switzerland, has identified a host of candidates, all foreign, while the club have also proposed an approach for former coach Danilo Doncic who had a positive spell at Luxol in 2013/14 before quitting his post in September last year to take charge of a club in Bahrain.

The highly-rated Serbian coach has been out of work since parting with Al Najma at the end of last season but apart from St Andrew’s, Cypriot club Ethnikos Achnas are also showing interest in Doncic.

St Andrew’s are hopeful of finalising the appointment of their new coach before their Premier League match against Pembroke Athleta today week.

Schembri vs Borg

Meanwhile, Malta forward Andrè Schembri and defender Steve Borg came face to face in a Cypriot league game on Sunday.

Schembri had the last laugh as Omonia Nicosia won 1-0 at Aris Limassol to remain fifth in the table with 19 points from 11 games.

Aris, who signed Borg in the close season, are eighth on 13 points.

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