FC Isle of Man interim manager Rick Holden has said his spell in charge of the Ravens was the toughest he’s had in football management.

Ultimately, Holden steered the Bowl outfit to safety as they finished in 20th spot, 17 points ahead of the league’s two relegation spots.

In a half-hour long interview on the club’s YouTube channel, Holden revealed the role had tested him personally, with the the sheer volume of games and away matches making it hard task to juggle with his day job and commitments at Peel FC and leaving him, in his own words, ‘knackered’.

‘Initially I’d said: “Look, I'll do six games and just try and steady the ship”.

‘Well, there was no chance of steadying the ship in six games so and I had to see it out [till the end of the season].

‘It is the toughest gig I've had in my football management time, which is about 30 years in total.’

Holden also said the Ravens’ busy schedule of 46 league games meant also making time for training difficult: ‘One of the other problems we had was training wasn’t long enough.

‘One of the reasons I call it one of the hardest gigs I've done is because we couldn't spend time on shape a lot due to people not being there or the time constraints.

‘We had to work on a bit of fitness and intensity, so we couldn't really organise them properly, but if you’ve only got an hour at the Bowl what can you do? The preparation in general was really difficult to put together. Credit to lads, they’d always give 100% so it was a good outcome in the long run.’

Nevertheless the former Peel and St John’s United boss said he is proud of his spell at the helm of the Ravens: ‘I don't think anything will beat getting promotion to the Championship with Barnsley as assistant manager, physio and first-team coach with Andy Ritchie in 2006, but it's up there with all the other stuff because it was a success.

‘We went in to specifically do it [avoid relegation], so I'm very proud of it, just like I'm proud of helping Peel to win the league this season.

‘All successes should be taken at face value.

‘What we had to achieve was quite clearly to just stay in the league and avoid relegation. So job done. I’m proud of the lads and everyone that helped.’

Looking to the future Holden added: ‘I said I'll be available to help coach whenever people want me to.

‘I just don't want the endless journey anymore. I’ll be just taking each day as it comes, and be available to help coach, physio and stuff, and play a bit more golf and write some more stupid books, but no doubt I'll get sucked into some football at some stage.

‘I’ll basically be taking one day at a time, which I've learned to do over the last two and a half years.’