Times Are Indeed Hard

TIMES must indeed be hard in Scottish football - Cumnock Juniors, in a cost-cutting measure, have dispensed with the services of one of the backroom staff.

Twenty years ago, when I was working for a local newspaper group in Ayrshire I forecast doom and gloom for Ayrshrie junior football in the 21st century. A contemporary from school, then High-Heid Yin at one of the oldest Ayrshire clubs told me he had a terrible vision of his beloved club playing amateur football come the millennium - thankfully, that grand old club is still functioning as a junior club today.

I forecast closure for one or two of the eternal strugglers in the Ayrshire League, they are still struggling these days, but still going. Of course, I also though that by 2010 the long-awaited Scottish pyramid would be up and running, but, I'm still waiting.

One thing I said then, was that, with the overthrow of King Coal in East Ayrshire, there was a chance that Cumnock would be left to carry the banner of that area at the top level of the junior game.

This (of course) did not go down well in Auchinleck or New Cumnock. Well today, Talbot are perhaps the most-stable of the three East Ayrshire giants; Glens only just escaped possible closure - their cause not helped by indifference which has seen New Cumnock become so-derelict, locals joke: "Welcome to New Cumnock, twinned with Basra".

But I always thought Cumnock would sail on. That town appeared to have an infrastructure of manufacturing and service industries which the surrounding villages lacked and therefore the potential for sponsorship and off-field funding perhaps beynd the others.

But, for all the hard work of their committee, post-recession, they too are now feeling the pinch.

Mind you, I've also said, the way junior football has, since the formation of the West of Scotland Superleague in particular, gone down the route of depending on failed seniors, would lead to financial trouble.

Better I argued to put in place a development programme along the lines of an associated Boys Club with age group teams up to an Under-21 juvenile side, to encourage local lads to identify with the local club.

Better too, to have an amateur arm, for the over-21s who are not good enough for your first team on a regular basis, but, could do a job at the end of the season, when you get into two and three games per week and definitely better to have a team full of locals, playing for the jersey.

I've yet to see a junior team follow this blue print, but reckon, the first that does and does it properly, will cash-in big time.

These never weres from Glasgow and its surrounding areas playing for Ayrshire junior clubs are merely, in my view, allowing hicks from the sticks to pay for their (the Glasgow Boys') hobby.

Of course there is another side to the story. I put this theory to the man who single-handedly ran his local club, to the extent he was known as Lord *********.

"Aye, it would be great to have 11 locals on the park, but, (there has to be a but), not many of the locals that we've given a chance to in recent years has been able to live with the abuse - because he's a local boy, the player who lives locally is judged by a higher standard, expected to give more to the team and take greater abuse when things don't work out - and not many local boys want that kind of pressure - so we go with the Glasgow boys, who only ever see the village on home game days".

That I can understand - "I kent his faither" has hindered more Scots than, lack of money, lack of ambition and lack of talent.

We truly are our own worst enemies.