How low could you go?

A 1-1 draw at home to neighbours East Stirling last Saturday kept Stewart's team in seventh place out of 10 in the table with 19 points from 16 games.

Stewart, who played 430 times for West Ham from 1979 to 1991, said: "I have money for players, in theory, but the chairman always tells me, 'Tomorrow.'"

"And you know what they say about tomorrow, don't you? It never bloody comes.

"On paper I've got a squad of 19, and of those 10 are full-time. They will come in most days. When they are all fit it looks quite rosy, but this year there's been a lot of injury problems.

"Some weeks I've been putting six or seven kids in the side, and that's not really fair.

"They're good lads with lots of promise, but they just haven't got the physical presence you need. I'd like to be holding them up more, pacing them along, but that's not always been possible."

It's unlikely Stewart, who won 10 caps for Scotland, will inherit pots of transfer booty any time soon. Gates at the Forthbank Stadium - which has a capacity of 3,808 - hover around 600, and the Albion merchandising empire does not approach Premiership proportions just yet.

Stewart said: "The crowds are disgraceful. The club has no assets to speak of. The ground is rented, and the only way we can raise any money is by selling some of our young players. But the number of foreign players coming in has killed that off.

"I get disillusioned sometimes and think 'what am I doing here?' But then I tell myself I have to keep going. I'm a proud person, and that gets me up in the morning to try again."

You feel, though, that Stewart might have a long, hard look if a better offer came his way.

He added: "I am ambitious, and I've learned a lot in a short time because there's so much to do at a small club which a top manager wouldn't dream of doing.

"I take tours of the ground, do a lot of work in the community, and watch games every night because we've no scouting system - but all that's got to be a good thing. If I had my time again, I would liked to have started off as a coach, working under an experienced manager for three or four years, learning the job that way. But it doesn't always turn out how you want it."

When you're in Stewart's position at the other end of the footballing ladder, it's pointless to talk too grandly of ambition; survival is the ambition.

He said: "At the moment I'd be happy getting out a settled side.

"Beyond that I get a lot of pleasure out of giving the lads a chance, seeing how they develop.

"It's ridiculous to talk about winning things.

"With a bit of luck we could get around the top of the Second Division. Maybe a little higher. Who knows?

"When I first took this job I felt I was going up the ladder. Now I'm going down it, but whatever you do, you always have to strive to better yourself."