KFCSA Meeting

As the new season approaches it's time for all the Killie supporters organisations to get ready for the year ahead. Last Thursday saw the Kilmarnock Football Club Supporters Association (KFCSA) reconvene in the Park Suite with Davie Mackinnon coming along to meet the fans. The turnout was fairly low but that was probably due to the diabolical weather outside. Davie is working long hours at Rugby Park but was more than happy to attend the meeting and say a few words to the fans
Our new General Manager expressed his delight at returning to the club that he served as a player and he has a genuine affinity to KFC and all the fans. He explained it was a "dream come true" to be back at Rugby Park and he had applied for other jobs previously to try and get back here.

He explained that due to a serious knee injury his playing career had prematurely ended when he was only 29. He has worked with several large companies since he stopped playing but has also been involved with football through his TV/Radio/Newspaper work. As the new General Manager he stated it was vital to improve the Public Relations and Communications side of things. For a club who finished 4th in the SPL Davie felt we never got the recognition and publicity we deserved. This is an area he will be looking to improve and he's already spoken to West Sound and the TV companies concerning this. Davie feels strongly that the Killie players should be involved in visiting functions, visiting schools etc and will be discussing this with JJ and the management team.

Davie took the opportunity to thank David Heath for helping him settle in during his first week. Along with all the other staff David had provided tremendous support in ensuring that the transition was as smooth as possible for the new GM.

There are several initiatives that Davie is working on and these will be publicised in the weeks and months ahead. The club will be informing fans to let them know the way ahead for the club during these difficult times for Scottish football. Davie is keen to do all he can to bridge the gaps that still exist between KFC and its supporters and will be speaking to the fans to get their views.

One fan asked Davie the situation regarding the Youth set-up and the soccer schools, which have proved to be successful over the last few years. DM stated the club is firmly committed to developing youngsters although he wasn't fully up to speed with all the current issues. He's aware there are new UEFA guidelines concerning training facilities for youngsters e.g. covered training facilities. Killie are working hard to attract the best kids around and the club will look to provide "something different" that will appeal to the youngsters. It's vital that kids from this area are not signed up by the old firm or other clubs in both Scotland and England.

KFCSA chairman Colin Hargreaves will be speaking to the club to establish what the plans are for the coming season and he will liaise with the parties concerned. DM then headed off to carry out some more duties and was given a healthy round of applause from the KFCSA representatives. There was a further discussion regarding the "youth" issues and it's something that the association will follow up. There were a few minor issues discussed before Colin gave out a list of the agreed dates for the KFCSA meetings throughout the season (see list below).

THURSDAY 21st AUGUST 2003

THURSDAY 25th SEPTEMBER 2003

THURSDAY 30th OCTOBER 2003

THURSDAY 27th NOVEMBER 2003

THURSDAY 18th DECEMBER 2003

THURSDAY 29th JANUARY 2004

THURSDAY 26th FEBRUARY 2004

THURSDAY 25th MARCH 2004

THURSDAY 29th APRIL 2004

THURSDAY 20th MAY 2004

All meetings will be held in the Park Suite with a 7.30pm start. The AGM will be held in early June with the exact date still to be decided.

Season Ticket Update

There's only just over a week to the first home game so if you haven't yet got your ticket then it's time to get off your posterior and get across to the wee bungalow at Rugby Park. We know there is a fair number of "blue vouchers" have not been taken up yet so ask around your friends and family to ensure it's taken up - some fans are happy to give them away free! Nicola and the girls were kept busy at the Open Day with a long queue for tickets all afternoon. The share centre will be closing up in a week so give us a ring quickly if you're looking for a blue voucher. Call Sandy on 0774 771 8754

Pub Crawl Update

A few weeks ago we detailed plans for a 'pint-less pub crawl' around Killie to try and drum up some readies for the upcoming launch of the Killie Trust (Friday 22nd August in the Park Suite if you've not seen the posters). We were a bit late getting off the mark but we finally got around to hitting a few of the public houses around the town centre last week.

In total we managed to cover 18 pubs one afternoon, which isn't that easy considering we had to explain to each and every person what the Trust was all about, and even more difficult considering that we had to abstain from partaking of any of the hard stuff! We were asking each establishment for a 50 quid donation to help with the costs of the Trust launch and in all fairness we did not receive one single knock back. However, as expected the owners or bar managers were not always present so we just had to leave a poster and a phone number and hope that they would get back to us.

Unfortunately so far, apart from five pubs that generously gave us cash on the day, none of the rest of them has bothered to call us back. It's a bit disconcerting considering how much these people rely on the Kilmarnock community to keep their tills ringing. You'd think they'd jump at the chance to give a little back and get some really positive publicity in the process! Apologies to those pubs we have not had the chance to visit yet, someone will be in to see you soon, and any landlord out there who has lost the number we gave you, call us on 07710 553 693 and we will arrange to come in and see you.

That said, it's a big B&H up to The Portman Hotel, Macks Bar, The Howard Arms, The Loudoun Arms and The Victoria Bar (Saltcoats) for coughing up when it came to the crunch and proving that they value their paying customers enough to contribute. We'd like to thank all five owners for making our day a wee bit less soul destroying as not one of them had to be persuaded by any manner of means, and we hope that our readers will remember which pubs walked the walk the next time they are out for a pint. That includes Terry McGarry and Davie Campbell who've been having a go at us for not mentioning them in the Gateshead article last week. Now that's a tenuous link if ever there was one!

The Open Day

It's not often we take a pop at the club (Celtic game aside) but we feel it's only fair that they take a wee bit of stick every now and then when things don't go as well as they possibly could do. Take this season's Open Day last Sunday…please. To be fair it wasn't a bad day, especially as the weather picked up from a very wet morning, but it all told was a bit disappointing.

Maybe we've been spoiled in days gone by or the old memory is playing tricks again but there always seemed to be so much more on the go a few years back. This season Davie Heath's departure and the arrival of Davie Mackinnon could have been a contributory factor. That's in no way a dig at Davie Mac, just that with all the changeovers and other stuff happening, the open day plans could have suffered somewhat as a consequence.

There seemed to be a distinct lack of supporter participation. No beat the goalie (no training pitch granted!), no beer tent, no live music, no raffle, not many stalls. The open day is a fantastic opportunity to attract fans back to Rugby Park and we should be making every effort to see that everyone who attends has an equally fantastic day and wants to come back.

FC Kilmarnock were playing a friendly against Arsenal, one of England's top professional women's sides, at Blair Park in Hurlford on Sunday. Whilst this is where they normally play, would it not have been a better idea for all concerned if the game had been switched to Rugby Park? What an advert that would have been for the ladies team and it would have been additional entertainment for the punters at the open day. There's always next year though, hopefully normal service shall be resumed.

Wizards of Oz

Every single match report in the Sunday papers last week mentioned the 'Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport' song being played by MC for the day Gavin Wallace, it's not often our matches get that coverage, never mind the tunes on the tannoy! It was great to hear something different being played over the PA system for a change, and even better to have a bit of humour injected into proceedings...McArdle has some competition on his hands at along last.

There's a distinct Antipodean air about the place at the moment, and the additions of striker Danny Invincibile and goalie Andy Petterson (albeit temporarily) to the squad has doubled our number of foreigners. Not forgetting FC Killie's new right back (nicknamed Oz believe it or not) as well. We've been proud of the number of Scottish players in our ranks in the last few seasons but if the Invincibile mans contributions can help us back into European contention then we don't give a XXXX where he comes from! Cue loads of Aussie gags and puns, the tabloid headline writers are going to have a field day, surely we can get in on the act as well?

Read the B&H column in the Kilmarnock Standard every week