Alex Burke (1996-2000)

Burke was a promising talent

Alex Burke will be remembered by Kilmarnock fans for adding left-wing swagger to the team that lifted the Scottish Cup in 1997, and who subsequently enjoyed European forays to the likes of Nice and Kaiserslautern. He was the teenage Scot who seemed to embody everything that had deserted the indigenous player: tanner-ba’ skills, gallousness and a passion for the fray that occasionally landed him up before the disciplinary beaks.

What Went Wrong at Killie?
I was a really young guy when I broke into the Killie team. Instead of going away and working harder when I was dropped, I would let my head go down. It’s not until you get a bit older that you realise you really need to put in more effort.

Life after Killie (Berwick Rangers then QOS)?
OK, Berwick’s not the biggest club in the country, or even in this division, but it’s laid back and organised, and I have a great laugh with the other guys who travel together to training from Glasgow. It’s a big change from some of the teams I’ve been with.

The comment is a reference to his pre-Berwick stint at Clydebank, where he admits that the troubled and now-defunct outfit often only had nine or ten players to call upon on the morning of a match. Before that, Burke did a turn for Falkirk under Alex Totten, his former mentor at Rugby Park, but was one of six players asked to leave in a wage-cutting exercise. Little wonder he finds the stability at Berwick so appealing. 

Memories of the Cup?
At the time you don’t realise how big a thing winning the cup is, because what are the chances of someone out with the Old Firm ever doing it again? But I’m not going to live in the past. I’ve got a four-year-old boy and a regular first-team game with Berwick, so I can’t complain.