Whit Team I Really Support

 WHEN it comes to declaring football allegiances in Scotland - it can be something of a minefield. Asked by a Weegie: "Whit team dae ye support?" the expected answer is either: Them, or The Other Lot. A response which doesn't instantly mark you out as "Blue/Orange" or "Green", normally brings the supplementary question: "Aye, but whit team dae ye REALLY support?"

A second answer not proferring either of the preferred choices, instantly has you marked down as: Simple, Somewhat Lacking, or A Liar, with a deficiency in moral fibre through your inability to admit to which side of the Twin Axis of Evil you come down on.

This protocol has always been puzzling to we Ayrshiremen. For instance - my order of allegiance is, in descending order: 1) Scotland; 2) Lugar Boswell Thistle; 3) Kilmarnock; 4) Anyone who is playing England.

This post is dedicated to my third love, Kilmarnock. My first exposure to the heartaches/joys of being a Rugby Parker came on a Boxing Day - Saturday, 26 December, 1959, at Rugby Park. Celtic were the opposition and Kilmarnock won 2-1 in front of 15,948 fans.

What had attracted me to Rugby Park? Why the debut of Andy Kerr, who lived just along the road from me and had just been signed from Manchester City. Andy linked-up with another local, the scandalously under-appreciated Bertie Black; and, I was Bertie's paper-boy.

To make the victory even more-memorable, Bertie scored the Killie opener, Andy got the winner, one of the most-amazing goals I had ever seen. He had got up at the back post to meet a Billy Muir corner, but could only head it back into the middle of the six-yard box, before he fell, on his back, beside the back stick. The only part of his body on the park was his right foot, and, as the scuffed follow-up shot rolled wide of the target, Andy simply flicked it past Frank Haffey, with the outside of his right foot, from that prone position and a distance of perhaps six inches. Told you it was a memorable strike.

I was hooked and can still rattle off that Kilmarnock team; Jimmy Brown, Jim Richmond and Matt Watson, Frank Beattie, Willie Toner and Bobby Kennedy, Vernon Wentzel, Jackie McInally, Andy Kerr, Bertie Black and Billy Muir - that's the XI against which all subsequent Kilmarnock teams are measured and generally found wanting.

That Willie Waddell-managed Killie squad were, with the great Hearts team assembled by Tommy Walker the principal contenders against a Rangers monopoly. Sure, the Celtic squad of the time had some great players, but, with Bob Kelly constantly interfering and over-ruling Jimmy McGrory, they were also-rans, awaiting the return of Jock Stein to put things right.

Sadly, once Waddell left, it became a long, slow decline to the third tier in Scotland, before the recovery which, today, has Killie as a mid-table Premiership side; maybe a run of bad results away from relegation, but, outsiders when it comes to a top-six place.

Back in 1959, before the A77 by-passed Kilmarnock, every Saturday a sad parade of buses trundled up and down King Street, Killie's main shopping thoroughfare, bound for Ibrox, Parkhead or wherever the Old Firm were playing that day. Killie diehards used to wonder, what the club might become if even half of these "glory hunters" were to switch their financial support to Killie. These same supporters club buses now by-pass Kilmarnock, but, that wonderment is still there.

I have honestly never thought that, apart from during the early days of the Fleeting brothers, Kilmarnock has properly tried to interest its Ayrshire constituency properly. I don't see that  ever happening in any case - the football mind-set in Scotland isn't tuned to such thinking.

But, I honestly believe, a properly-funded and managed Killie, could give Celtic (and Rangers if they ever get back) a run for their money, as they did 50-plus years ago, when I was a boy.

This will never happen under Michael Johnston, and it was sad this week to see yet another attempt to take-over the old club failing. I am no fan of the Chairman, but, I can see, if there is to be progress he will need to be bought-off, and he will not go cheaply. It is sad.

FINALLY - is there nobody around Ibrox capable of telling Ally Mccoist to: "Shut it". His latest pronouncement about Rangers' Scottish Cup chances simply demonstrates - he should have stuck to A Question Of Sport, where such nonsense is expected.

You know, Raith Rovers have previous when it comes to beating one half of the Old Firm in a national cup final, into which they go as cannon fodder.

A Division One and Ramsden's Cup double is far from a given, never mind a Triple Crown.