JIM McCluskie has his hunger for football back and is hunting a UniBond Premier place for Rossendale United.

After bringing an end to his first spell at the club last season, when he quit the manager's job, McCluskie has been re-instated in the hot seat following Paul Lynch's resignation.

Lynch, who succeeded Jim McBride in September, decided to step down to resume his playing career after recovering from an operation, and he has also become the commercial manager at Dark Lane.

This paved the way for McCluskie, who has been helping Lynch with coaching for the past two months, to take over for a second a spell as boss.

And he is keen to emulate the success he enjoyed when he led Dale to the North West Counties League title, and promotion to the UniBond First Division, in 2001.

He said: "There's been a hell of a lot of work done here and it is a UniBond Premier ground, so I feel that's where the club should be.

"We don't want to be back where we were three of four years ago, we want to progress.

"We did a lot of things in a short space of time when I was first here but it's levelled off in the last couple of years.

"Now there's a new board in place and looking forward to the future so I hope it will match my ambition.

"I needed a period away from the game to find my hunger and get it back. I've enjoyed doing the coaching with the lads and I've got the feel for it again."

McCluskie inherits a side struggling in 18th place in UniBond Division One although they have played fewer games than any other side.

So the new boss has 20 league games left to propel Rossendale towards the top 13 spot which is the minimum they will have to achieve to stand any chance of getting into the Premier when the pyramid is re-built and re-shuffled at the end of the campaign.

McCluskie's first task is to pick up a rare away win against Gateshead tomorrow.

He said: "We've performed well at home and against the top sides but we need consistency.

"We win one, lose a couple, draw one and so on, so we're hoping to pick something up at Gateshead and carry on from there.

"We haven't managed to gather any momentum because we've hardly had any midweek games. If you play three games in a week you can make a big leap up the table."

Former Ossett Town boss Gary Brook has also joined the club as McCluskie's assistant and Dale chairman Steve Draper is delighted with the new managerial set-up.

He said: "We feel we are in safe hands with Jim because of his experience at our level. It's a positive appointment.

"We have no criticism of Paul and feel the club has moved forward since he's been in charge.

"He's 27 and the experience he has had here will prove invaluable and I'm sure he will manage again.

"We sensed he felt under pressure, not from the board, but from all the different aspects of UniBond life as it's a big commitment. I don't think he expected to be in the position of training to play again this quickly."

Dale are struggling in the forward department for the trip to Gateshead, with Brian Welch injured and Simon Burton recovering from an operation which will sideline him for three weeks.

However, McCluksie has been boosted by the willingness shown by the players to help him lift Rossendale up the table.

He added: 'I sat them down and asked if they wanted to play for Rossendale and the response was good. That's a sound base to begin with."