Today's Killie Fans Are Doing More Bleating Than Ruby And Angus Ever Managed (and some will not even know who Ruby and Angus were)

THE SQUEALING, bleating and sense of entitlement which has been coming from some Kilmarnock fans since Thursday night's disappointing early exit from Europe, at the hands of Connah's Quay Nomads has been disappointing to an old Rugby Park hand like me.

The way some of the Rugby Parkers are behaving confirms that for some Scots, the wind is always in their faces.

Angus the sheep photo-bombs a Jackie McInally

autograph-signing session - today, some Killie

fans are doing more bleating than Angus ever did 

Can I offer a modicum of perspective to those who are calling for the Manager's head, and saying they will not be back. Those saying: “How dare those Welsh part-timers beat us, the Mighty Killie – have a look at the club's history.

Now, I do not intend to go back to the very start, but, I had a look at how Killie have done since the end of World War II – 74 seasons-worth of performances in the Scottish League. I have not looked at cups, since there is an element of luck involved in cup progress. However, the league is a more-level playing field.

When football resumed at the end of WWII, in season1945-46, Killie finished the first season in 15th place in the 16-club First Division, but, with no relegation that year, they stayed put, only to again finish 15th in season 1946/47 and this time, they did go down.

In 47/8, they finished 6th in the Second Division, 22nd-best in Scotland, before slumping to 12th in that division the following season – leaving the club ranked 27th in Scotland. This is Killie's lowest post-war placing.

The club's average placing in the four post-war seasons of the 1940s, football's “golden Age” in terms of crowds, was 20th. Interestingly, the average attendance over the club's 15 home league games that season 1948-49, there worst in post-war history, was 8902.

In the 1950s, Killie saw the decade split equally – five seasons in each, between the First and Second Divisions, their average finishing place being 14th. Only twice in that decade, in 1956-7 and 1957-8, did they achieve a top six finish.

The 1960s were, of course, Golden Years for Kilmarnock – the decade capped by that League Championship in 1964-65. The club in those years from 1959-60 to 1968-69 finished: second, second, fifth, second, second, first, third, seventh, seventh and fourth for an average finishing position over the decade of third; regular forays into Europe and to the USA, Golden Years indeed.

After that, the only way was down, and the seventies were a turbulent decade for the club, with three relegations and three promotions during the ten years – although, one of the relegations was due to re-organisation, when the Premier Division was introduced in 1975.

Over the decade, however, after a high of seventh in 1969-70, Killie settled down to finish the decade in an average 13th spot, and back in the second tier in Scotland.

Mind you, these were good years, compared to what would follow in the 1980s, as Kilmarnock struggled. The decade began with them back in the top ten, finishing eighth in 1979-80. The next three seasons brought relegation, promotion and relegation again, before the club settled for mid-table mediocrity in the First Division, the middle one of the three senior divisions in Scotland at that time.

They had gone part-time, the board were seemingly short of cash and bereft of ideas and it all came tumbling down in 1988-89, with relegation to the Second Division, the bottom tier of Scottish football. Over the decade, Kilmarnock's average finishing position was as the 15^th best club in Scotland.

But, with the arrival of the Fleeting brothers, Bobby to galvanise the fans from the board room and Jim to bring stability in the dressing room, the long road back began. The immediate priority, getting promoted out of the basement division was achieved. The next two seasons were spent stabilising things before, in season 1993-94, Killie were back in the top flight, ten seasons after leaving it.

Getting established was tough, but, by the end of the decade, Killie were a top four club, they had won the Scottish Cup, got back into Europe and, over the decade, climbed back to being, on average, the 11th best team in Scotland.

The early 2000s saw Killie became Premiership regulars, ninth, fourth, seventh, fourth, tenth, fifth, firth, eleventh and eighth in the ten seasons, for an average placing of sixth, the best since the Golden Years of the 1960s.

There has been, it is true, a bit of slippage over the last decade, with a couple of flirtations with relegation via the end-of-season play-off. However, after Steve Clarke's first-season miracle of finishing fifth, followed by last season's third, expectations are high. Over the past decade, Kilmarnock has on average been the eighth-best team in Scotland.

I ask any Kilmarnock fan – can we reasonably expect much-better? The Bigot Brothers, the two Edinburgh sides, the two Dundee sides and Aberdeen can all surely, with their bigger catchment areas for both fans and sponsorships, can reasonably be expected to do better than us. It might be argued, St Mirren and Motherwell are as well set-up, if not better, than us.

I could probably live with a top eight finish every year, the occasional cup, or European campaign – that is probably as-much as we dare hope for.

So yes, over the past two years, Kilmarnock has punched above its weight category, and, naturally, there is disappointment when things do not go as we had hoped they might.

But, I ask those Killie fans who are fuming at Thursday's result: where would you rather be, where the club is now, or where it was in the 1940s, 1950s, 1970s and 1980s?

Study your club's history, then enjoy today's good days.

Dry Your Eyes Killie Fans - We Have Been In Darker Places

I CAN close my eyes and across the years, I can hear him: “Oh dear! Oh dear! Oh dear! Disaster for Kilmarnock,” because, that's how I imagine dear old, departed and much-missed David Francey might have reacted at full time at Rugby Park last night, as the sun set far-too-soon, on Kilmarnock's European Tour 2019.

David Francey would have had the correct words for last night

Some tour – Kilmarnock to Rhyl and back, exotic or what.

Of course, the troops were not happy, and rightly so, but, the reality is, this is how far Scottish football has fallen, that our teams can no longer treat sides from the Welsh League as mere speed bumps on the road back to being a major force in Europe – this is where we are, down among the barely-living in the European game.

But, I wonder how many of last night's crowd had been there back in the day, when things were really awful for Killie – when the club was part-time and only a handful over 800 fans turned-up to see the club stumble and fall into the bottom tier in the domestic game.

Then, along came Bobby (and Jim) Fleeting, the sinking ship was steadied, the “old” Rugby Park gave way to today's fit-for-purpose all-seater stadium. We had Tommy Burns and Billy Stark. Bobby Williamson won us the Scottish Cup, we have retained our top-flight status, and even won the League Cup under Kenny Shiels.

Some of us, being greedy bar stewards, whose first taste of Rugby Park came in the glory days of Willie Waddell, Frank Beattie, Bertie Black, Andy Kerr, the young Tommy McLean and Davie Sneddon, we want us back there, challenging the Old Firm and competing regularly for the big prizes, but, we appreciate, a 150-year-old escutcheon which bears only the following “battle honours”:

• Scottish League Champions – 1964-65
• Scottish Cup winners – 1919-20; 1928-29; 1996-97
• Scottish League Cup winners – 2011-12
• Tennent Caledonian Cup – winners 1979-80
• UEFA Respect for Fair Play Rankings – winners 1999

teaches us not to have great expectations, and, perhaps, to treat what Kipling called: “The twin imposters – triumph and disaster” both the same.

Of course, there are various other “consolation prizes” which have been claimed over the years, but, in 150 years as a club, a mere FIVE major Scottish domestic honours have come Killie's way. That's an average of one big domestic trophy every 30 years, so, anything before 2042, by which time, if I am still around, I will be 95, will be a bonus.

So, yes, last night was soul-destroying, it was a massive let-down. Yes, perhaps the new manager is already on his way to “losing the dressing room.” Perhaps all is not well at the club, but, we have a new gaffer, finding his feet as the main man, rather than, as before, as a Number Two. Changes always bring upsets.

However, while saying: “Well done” to Connah's Quay Nomads, we must realise:

• in both games, referees who were not fit for purpose allowed them to kick us off the park
• we missed enough chances to have won both games comfortably
• we are currently in a state of change
• we are still, realistically in “pre-season” mode
• Shite happens

We re-group, we roll up our sleeves and we go again. Yes, last night was very-disappointing, but, compared to where we were 30 years ago (in case you weren't around then, preparing to entertain Brechin City in the first game of a season which would end with us as Runners-Up in the lowest tier in Scottish Football) – going out to a Welsh club in the first qualifying round of a European competition is a world away.

It has never been plain-sailing as a Kilmarnock fan; and perhaps never will be.

In case you don't believe me, that Brechin City game to which I referred, at Rugby Park on 1 August, 1989, finished 2-0 to the visitors. The Kilmarnock team that day was: McCulloch; Wilson, Davidson, Jenkins, Cody, Flexney, D Thompson, Tait, M Thompson, Reilly, Watters. Not very-many Rugby Park legends in that line-up.

Robert Reilly - one of only four guys to see out a special season in the first-team

Only four of that starting XI against Brechin: Paul Flexney, Tommy Tait, Robert Reilly and Willie Watters were in the starting line-up for the promotion-clinching win over Cowdenbeath, the final match both of season 1989-90 and of the “old” Rugby Park. That is how quickly things can change in football.

So, dry your tears, all you miserable Killie fans – last night was not the end of the world.

We Are MerelyPaying Lip Service To Youth Development

THERE IS something not quite right about the new fitba season getting underway before the Open Champion has posed with the Claret Jug. It goes against the order of seasons.

But, here we are, the Bigot Brothers have already played their opening games in the Champions and Europa Leagues qualifiers, with Aberdeen and Kilmarnock due to kick-off their European adventures tonight – and we are still only midway through the second week of Wimbledon.

I wish the BBs and the two “diddy” Scottish teams all the best in Europe, and wonder, just when the SFA and the SPFL will adjust their season to give our clubs a fighting chance of just maybe, still being in Europe past Christmas.

It does grate with me that most of the close season transfer activity appears to revolve round importing non-Scots. The first and most-important part of the SFA's reason for existing is supposedly to promote and develop Scottish football.

Just how allowing the top clubs to bring-in non-Scots willy-nilly squares with this, well, it has me beaten.

Unless we gain Independence, and a speedy re-admission to the European Union for an independent Scotland, I fear our top clubs are going to get a bit of a shock, once Westminster's hard presumption against immigration starts to kick-in, and it becomes very difficult to import foreign players. The days of free-for-all importing will soon be over.

I was reading yesterday about the rules in French Rugby Union, where the clubs are supposedly awash with imports – to the detriment of French young players. Well, except, France has won the last two Under-20 Rugby World Cup competitions.

In France, the clubs MUST include a specific number of France-qualified players in each match-day squad. The same rule applies in English rugby, where each match-day squad has to have at least 70% (16/23 players) “England-qualified.

If that rule was introduced into Scottish football, the Big Two would surely struggle. In Sarajevo, the Celtic starting XI contained six Scots, which equates to 61.1% “Scotland-qualified,” while the full 18-man match-day squad saw 11 of the 18 – 54.5% being “Scotland-qualified.”

The Rangers squad was even-less Scottish: just two of the starting XI, Allan McGregor and Ryan Jack were “Scotland-qualified,” that's 18.2%, while only three of the seven on the bench: Andy Halliday, Greg Stewart and Greg Docherty were “Scotland-qualified,” giving a squad figure of 27.8%.

That's a long way off the 11 players, born within a 40-mile radius of Celtic Park, the immortal Lisbon Lions, and also a long way off the 11 Scots, known as “The Barcelona Bears” after they pulled-off their club's greatest win in the 1972 Cup-Winners Cup final.

And don't give me the old: “These days are past” line. It could happen again, with a wee bit of hard work and ambition – oh yes, and if the SFA weren't scared of the big two and got them, and the other big clubs telt – start pushing young Scottish players.

Bringing-on young players, I will admit, in an inexact science. Scottish football first became involved in age group football in 1955, with the first Under-23 team, from which emerged four internationalists: Alex Parker, Eric Caldow, Dave Mackay and Graham Leggatt, all of whom were in the full Scotland squad for the 1958 World Cup Finals, just over three years later, and two of whom, Caldow and Mackay are in any all-time Scotland squad named since.

In all, in 43 Under-23 internationals between 1955 and 1976, we tried-out 209 young players, of whom 116, or 55.5%, went on to become full caps.

Then we switched to Under-21 football, and in the first decade, we capped 104 players at this level, of whom 50, or 48.1% went on to win full caps.

Then, in 1986 David Holmes recruited Graeme Souness as Rangers' manager and everything changed. David Murray bought the club and introduced the import-heavy recruiting system he had used with his MIM basketball club, and, everyone else followed suit.

I am still updating my data base of Under-21 caps, but, can tell you, between 1986 and 2006, the percentage of Under-21 caps “training-on” to become full internationalists fell from 48.1% to 33.2%.

In fact, there are several instances of Under-21 caps from the Big Two, who played more age group internationals for Scotland than first-team games for their club. Sorry, but, that aint right.

I had a look at the last Scotland Under-21 team to take the field, losing 2-1 to Sweden in a tournament back in March. That team was:

Robbie McCrorie (Rangers); Sean Mackie (Hibernian), Barrie McGuire (Motherwell), George Johnston (Liverpool), Daniel Harvie (Aberdeen/on-loan Ayr United), Allan Campbell (Motherwell), Michael Andrew Johnston (Celtic), Benjamin Houser (Reading), Jordan Holsgrove (Reading), Ross McCrorie (Rangers), Iain Wilson (Kilmarnock). On the bench were: Jamie Brandon (Heart of Midlothian), Patrick Reading (Middlesbrough), Fraser Hornby (Everton), Jake Hastie (Motherwell), Oliver Shaw (Hibernian), David Turnbull (Motherwell); all of whom got off the bench, plus unused subs: goalkeepers Kieran Wright (Rangers, on-loan to Albion Rovers) and Ross Doohan (Celtic) and defender Calvin Miller (Celtic).

I've never-even heard of at least half a dozen of these guys. Certainly David Turnbull, Michael Johnston and the McCrorie twins have a bit of public name recognition. But, five years or so into their professional careers, these guys are some way off pushing for a place in the full Scotland squad. Indeed, Ross McCrorie, a veteran of over 50 first-team games for Rangers is so far out of Steven Gerrard's plans, he has agreed to a season-long loan with Portsmouth in England's third tier, while his goalkeeping twin brother is also going out on-loan, to Queen of the South.

Given what he has already done at the club, I cannot see the sense of loaning-out Ross McCrorie. Yes, giving Robbie a chance to play regularly, and ditto Kieran Wright, well that allows Rangers' fourth and fifth-choice 'keepers to show what they can do, and I can see nothing wrong with that.

No, it's difficult enough to make it as a professional footballer, but, if you're a young Scottish wannabee, it seems, these days, even your employers like to put additional obstacles in your way.

The talented and determined will always make it, but, I wonder, over the years, just how many marginal boys – who might have made it, got disillusioned and gave-up.