Stevie Murray

The wee man is something of a fan's favourite and it was good to see him get a starting place against Rangers last Sunday. In the last year or so the pint-sized winger has had a limited amount of starts although he's well capable of making an impact when being introduced in the latter stages of a game.

Twenty or thirty years ago "wee Ruby" would have been a superstar as wingers were an integral part of many great teams. Killie had great wee wingers like Tommy McLean and Jimmy Cook who had the crowd jumping out their seats every time they got on the ball and Stevie has the same effect on the East stand. Jimmy Johnstone and Willie Henderson played the same way and are legends at Parkhead

The game has moved on since these guys played however and nowadays players are fitter, faster and simply don't allow you any time on the ball. Allied to the ever-changing team formations it's no wonder there are so few wingers in the game just now. Most managers find it more important for players to gallop from box to box for 90 minutes rather than show off a few skills and give the poor full back a headache.

It may be hard to play the wing position but Ruby has that "wee man syndrome" that can see him have a long and successful career. He regularly squares up to opponents twice his height and Lee Wilkie was lucky to escape his wrath earlier in the season! Ricksen seemed unsure how to handle the wee man last week and it was no surprise when he eventually got booked. Long may Stevie reign on the left wing as there are precious few crowd pleasers left in the game nowadays.

Williamson Returns

When standing selling the Hippo last Sunday the afternoon tranquility was interrupted by a bellowing shout from the driver's window of a large silver car. The driver was none other than Fat Boab and he was enquiring if I was still selling "that mince". He actually used more colourful language but I couldn't possibly print it in the Standard!

I was waiting on a comment being made about a recent article we'd written elsewhere about his contractual troubles at Easter Road. The article stated it was rather ironic he was not being shown any loyalty by the Hibs board after walking out midway through his Killie contract. A few days later in a national tabloid Bobby's old chum Ally McCoist got ripped into the article stating Killie fans had short memories blah blah blah.

Just for the record Ally, his record at Rugby Park was not questioned however Killie fans have every right to question his desire to jump ship for the sake of a few extra pie vouchers. You stick to cracking sexist gags about washed-up tennis stars on a dated quiz show and we'll write about Kilmarnock Football Club.

Last Call For Hampden

We've been asked to remind all you patriotic punters that the Kadikoi Tartan Army is running a bus to Hampden this Saturday. It leaves at 1.15pm and there are still a few seats available - call Colin Boyd 01563 533251 or Rab Robb 01563 544217.

Events Report

B&H went on tour after the Celtic game to cover a few of the events that had been organized by some of the supporter's clubs. It was an early kick off of course so after a few refreshments at chez Millar it was off to the Riviera in Newmilns for their player of the year presentation. Stevie Fulton was the man of the moment and he arrived flanked by teammates Rhian Dodds and Gary McDonald, surprisingly though Stan Petrov never turned up for the Mark Spitz dive of the year trophy.

We were running a bit late and missed the actual presentation but it was lucky for Baggio that we turned up, as beside us he looked positively thin! The players were a bit peeved at the afternoon's events but our acid wit and repartee soon had them laughing, well okay, heading for the door. I'm not saying our patter is like water but if talking rubbish was an art form we'd be right up there for a Nobel Prize.

As the Riverside patrons settled down to their quiz night (bet some of those answers were interesting) we jumped in a cab and headed back down to Killie for the race night in Mack's Bar. After we'd paid the taxi driver compensation for his suspension we just managed to squeeze into the pub, it was absolutely heaving, another cracking turn out. The races were already under way but we were in plenty of time to back a few losers, some things never change.

Big Colin Nish and his girlfriend were there so we bent his ear for a wee while trying to find out all the latest goss. Fair play to the big yin though he wasn't dishing the dirt on anyone but he made it quite clear that he appreciates how JJ is giving him a fair crack of the whip. His contract is up at the end of next month so we'll soon see if the manager rates him or not.

Overall the night went well an although Shimmy has not came across with the actual figures yet it's fair to assume that everyone who was due to benefit from the evening will have done pretty well out of it. Well done to the Mack's Bar Supporters Club and the regulars of the pub for supporting the event, we'll be back next year.

Last Saturday night saw another race night, this time at the Pyramid Snooker Club, home of the Travel Club. Again there was a fantastic turnout and Danny Coffey is still counting the cash raised towards Puddock's memorial. Franny Milligan of A1 Glass had donated a huge framed photo of Paul Wright's cup winning goal, one of only three in existence, and that alone raised 500 bucks, without even going to auction. We had planned to sell it off on the Internet but the offer from one generous punter (who shall remain nameless in case his trouble doesn't know yet!) was too much to refuse.

We now have a Killie Events Diary section on killiefc.com where you can keep up to speed on anything Killie related that is going down. It cover the matches of the first team, the under 21's, under 19's, FC Killie, FC Killie Girls and Killie IFC as well as functions like the ones mentioned above. If you are hosting an event and would like it publicised then drop us a line and we'll give you a mention in this column and on the website.

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