Away Tops Slashed!

We got a phone call during the week from the lovely Josie at Killie Connections. The girls in the shop do a great job and were the busiest folk in Rugby Park at the recent Open Day. Strips continue to sell well with all three tops proving popular with the fans so here's a special treat for all Killie fans. The red away top (Adult sizes) is being reduced to £25 from Thursday 4th September so get in there quickly if you want to get kitted out for the September holidays. Kids tops are being reduced to £20 so there's bargains in the shop for everyone.

Theatre Of Slices?

Of course it doesn't have the same appeal as our

beloved Theatre of Pies but Brownings peppered steak slice is the new cult food at Rugby Park. Food is almost as important as football to these two salad dodgers and when we saw huge posters of the steak slices pictured next to doughnuts we were dribbling more than Wee Ruby Murray on a mazy run.

It's great to see (and taste) a much better selection of food at home games and reminds me of a story from Ibrox during the 90's. Rangers were well known for attaching player's names to their tea bar nosh with Durrant and McCoist being paired up with burgers and pakora. They took it a stage too far all the same after signing Frenchman Basile Boli who promptly gave his name to the Boli soup.
Fair enough, it's an urban myth, but it makes for a good tale at Howard HQ after a few scoops. Now I wonder if Brownings would go for the B&H peppered steak slice - we'd not charge for using our name but we would be volunteering for some food tasting!

Name Dropping

The best part of selling the fanzine on match days is the crack you get with the fans as they walk past. If I had a quid for every Tam Cowan look-alike quip I'd have enough cash to buy Chelsea, but there's other entertainment on show. There are always some 'celebs' driving past as they head for the main stand. Former boss Jim Fleeting is a regular attendee as a Killie fan plus he covers the games for a radio station. Gordon Smith was at the Thistle game a few weeks back and it was good to have a chinwag with cult hero 'Fab' Rab Reilly last Sunday. However I can quash the myth that the Scotland manager has lost his directions to the Theatre of Slices! At 2.15pm last Sunday wee Bertie cruised past in a flash motor hopefully to see Boom Boom Boydie take centre stage. Thankfully the big man produced the goods and I hope Bertie didn't decide to leave 15 minutes before the final whistle - we'd expect to see him included in the next under 21 squad.

Deadline Busting Deals

It was a case of one defender out and one defender in this week as the transfer window snapped shut until next January. On the way out was 27 year old centre half Chris 'Johnny Bravo' Innes in a move which came as a surprise to most Killie fans. Dundee United have been on the lookout for a defender for several weeks now and Innes was one of the players who Ian McCall fitting the bill so he approached Killie about his availability. We have plenty of cover in that department and Innes was out of contract next season so Jim Jefferies offered Chris the opportunity to talk to the Arabs.

Knowing that his new contract would probably have meant less wages may have helped Chris make up his mind and the move to Tannadice was signed and sealed, with 120k heading in the opposite direction. He could have signed for another club six months from now for nothing so in effect everyone was a winner. Then again I don't hold out much hope for his career prospects as the last few players we've sold them have not exactly set the heather on fire. There would have been many a wry smile on Killie fan's faces on Sunday night when they saw him gifting Rangers two goals in his debut game. All said and done we wish him the best regardless, he was a decent servant to the club and deserves a bit of luck.

Johnny Bravo's replacement is five years younger and signed a three year deal on Monday. It was hoped that Blackburn's Gordon Greer would have been signed in time to parade before the fans at the Dundee game but contract negotiations were not concluded in time for that to happen. The 6'2" centre half made a 200k switch to Ewood Park after only 33 starts for Clyde but never really got a chance at Blackburn despite being Graeme Souness's first signing and ended up out on loan to Stockport. Middlesbrough and Spurs were also keen to sign him at one stage.

The killiefc.com Rumour Mill had JJ watching Greer way back in July. The gaffer said: "I have watched Gordon a few times and he is a very good player. He went down to Blackburn and things didn't work out and we're giving him the chance of a fresh start. Gordon is still relatively young but he is a good prospect and we will give him the chance to play first-team football - that is something he has lacked over the last couple of seasons."

Keen to find out what his former club's fans though of him we enquired about and found this from a Blackburn fan: "To be honest, he wasn't given a chance. Last season he went on loan to Division 2, Stockport and suddenly they started winning. He is a strong centre back, especially in the air but his distribution is lacking. As long as you don't expect him to pass the ball well, he'll be a good signing. He'll also pop up with goals from corners which has almost become his reserve team specialty. Greer made one of the best debuts I have see, albeit in a friendly BUT against Barcelona. He scored a fantastic goal and we won. Unfortunately, since then we haven't heard much from him." And this from a Stockport fan: "He looked pretty good in the air. He is also dangerous when he goes forward for corners. Shame we couldn't sign him in the summer but we already have enough defensively." Sounds promising.

Fantastic Freddy

With all this talk of comings and goings in the defensive set-up we thought it only right that we should mention a story we heard last week. We have it on good authority that an SPL club made an official bid for on form Freddie Dindeleux during the close season. Freddie is in the same boat as Chris Innes was with his contract due to run out at the end of this term and the possibility of a wage cut on the horizon. The club of course had to make the Frenchman aware of the interest but when they did so they were pleasantly surprised at his reaction. He didn't even want to talk to them! He stated that he was more than happy with the current set-up at Killie and he wanted to stay with the club no matter what anyone else was offering.

Whatever way you want to look at it he's possibly done himself a disservice by letting his heart rule his head…but what price loyalty? It's a commodity in short supply in the modern era where a player's pay packet is his main motivation. The details of the proposals shall always remain shrouded in mystery but we feel it's only right that the fans should know that in Monsieur Dindeleux we have a player out on that park who is really playing for the shirt. JJ's decision to relieve him of captaincy duties has really paid off and he's looking back to his best, let's make sure we give him and extra big cheer the next time he runs out the tunnel.

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