Blair Millar KFC 1985-86

What's the story behind your introduction to football?

My grandfather, Sam Forest, played with St. Mirren. He started to kick the ball about with me on the beach at Nairn and from then on I was hooked. My career however has been largely influenced by four other people. Drummond Wilson was my primary school football team manager who instilled his own brand of medicine, usually a quick knuckle to the back of the head. This helped when I went to secondary school because he was my French teacher for two years although instead of teaching me verbs he would teach me how to swear in French! Unfortunately, my secondary school played rugby and not football so for the first year I had to be content with chasing an oval ball around the park. My parents contacted Alex Gorman, who was manager of Paisley and District Boys Club under 13's, he arranged a trial for me against a team from Port Glasgow, I played in the second half and scored a goal. Alex then helped to develop my career over the next five years. My father was president of Johnstone Burgh Juniors and took me to watch them from a very early age. Unfortunately I learned some bad habits and one Sunday afternoon my mother was aghast to hear me shouting at the top of my voice 'Up the Burgh ya buggers!' to passing neighbours when I was only 3 years old. My dad was later instrumental in getting me to play for the Burgh while I was still at school where I played alongside Stevie Fulton's father, Norrie. The last person was no more of an influence than the others but was by far the most well known. Our babysitter for many years, Sheena, was dating a young footballer and he would play with me in our back garden. He was responsible for my desire to become a goalscorer and more importantly, for supporting Kilmarnock, his name was Brian McIlroy. 

You made your mark at Clydebank by being their top goalscorer. Was this a good time in your footballing career?

I was relatively old at 20 when I got my chance to play senior football. The manager of Clydebank, Bill Munro, was involved in the signings to my three senior clubs, Clydebank, Airdrie and Kilmarnock where he was the assistant to Eddie Morrison. Clydebank was very much a family club run by the Steedmans, but considering the lack of finance, we had a reasonable amount of success. I was top goalscorer for four years in a row and in one season I was the top goalscorer in Scotland. I had played alongside Frank McDougall, Tommy Coyne, Bobby Williamson and Gerry McCabe all of whom went on to have good careers with other clubs. I was very happy with the Bankies but when Bill Munro moved to Airdrie, it seemed inevitable that I would leave. I still have a soft spot for them so, yes, I believe it was a good time in my career. 

What about your time at Airdrie?

I started well at Airdrie but was seen by the fans as a replacement for Sandy Clark who was a local hero before being transferred to West Ham. In the eyes of some of the Airdrie supporters I could do nothing right, even if I scored a goal my next misdirected pass was booed. Bill Munro needlessly suffered the wrath of the Airdrie support as well and I grew to hate the Section B crowd. I was recovering from a cartilage operation when Bill left to be replaced by Ally McLeod. He was a complete numpty who knew very wittle (as he would say it) about tactics or man management. He was in it for all the publicity that he could get and if he were chocolate he would have eaten himself! He is without a doubt the worst manager I have ever met, hence the reason he has been with Ayr twice. 

What are your recollections of your move to Killie?

To epitomise what kind of person McLeod was, the night that I was asked to sign on a loan period with Killie was a total farce. Working with the bank in Kilmarnock at the time, I finished work on a Thursday at 6 p.m. Training started at 7 p.m. in Airdrie but I could never manage to get there until about 7.20 p.m. The normal training consisted of a few laps of the park to warm up and then a full scale game on the park (that's why Broomfield had such a crap surface). On the night in question I arrived as usual and did four warm up laps, passing McLeod each time. After the fourth he told me to do another two before he would put me into the game. When I had finished, McLeod just looked at me with that glaikit look of his and asked what I was doing there. What the hell did he think I was doing? He then told me that he had arranged for me to go on a month's loan to Kilmarnock and that Eddie Morrison was waiting for me to sign the necessary paperwork. It was almost 7.45 p.m. by this time and Eddie was expecting me at 6.30 p.m. Bear in mind that I worked less than half a mile from Rugby Park. Once restrained from inflicting any injuries upon McLeod, I made my way to Kilmarnock and arrived at 9.00 p.m. Eddie was waiting on his own with all the lights off except one. It took me about five minutes to convince him that he should take me on loan, I think in that short space of time he knew how I felt about the club. 

Were you concerned about the length of time it took for the board to raise the cash for your transfer?

I was not really involved at that stage and unaware of the club's finances. I wanted and needed a move to resurrect my career but Airdrie were sticking out for as much as they could get, no doubt McLeod had a hand in that. I just wanted to play for Killie and my one regret at this time was that I never managed to play in the fiasco at Inverness due to the complications regarding the transfer. I was not signed before the deadline. In fact I never played a Scottish Cup tie for Killie. 

Was it a dream move or did you see yourself walking into a potential nightmare?

Yes, it was an absolute dream come true. Ever since my younger days with Brian McIlroy. As Maurice would say, they were the team I had always wanted to play for! The club's off field problems did not affect my game at any time. I was amazed however to find that we were playing in front of less than a thousand fans at times, in my first game against Meadowbank there were only 847 punters there. It took me back to my Clydebank days in that respect, I had always thought that Killie had a bigger support. The ground always seemed so empty and the atmosphere generated by the fans was one of impending doom, especially with the threat of relegation hanging over us. 

You scored a few very vital goals, do any stand out?

My first goal against East Fife when we won 2-0 at Methill was a bit special. I am informed that it must have been one of the quickest ever scored for Kilmarnock. I took centre passing to Sam McGivern who played it back to Stuart McLean. Ian Bryson made a run up the park with myself and after Stuart controlled the ball, he sent a long pass towards Ian who was at this time just outside the opposition's penalty box. I know it sounds hard to believe, but I witnessed Stuart showing both control and passing skills in the same game! Anyway, Ian jumped to meet the ball and headed it into my path. I hit it first time and the ball flew into the net. It seemed quicker than my description on the day! The opposition never got a touch but unfortunately the bulk of the Killie fans missed it because of a delay in the traffic. I think half of them missed the second goal as well which was only about six or seven minutes later. 

What is your favourite memory of your time at the club?

I have a lot of good memories of my short time at Kilmarnock but a couple stand out. In my first game against Meadowbank we were losing 1-0 for a long spell. In the second half a ball was played towards myself just inside the penalty box. I managed to knock it to the side and as I turned, the defender brought me down, a blatant penalty. You would have thought that someone would have grabbed the ball to take the resultant kick but such was the lack of confidence most players walked in the other direction. Eventually Stuart McLean stepped up, placed the ball on the spot and calmly scored. We then started to control the game. With about four minutes remaining I collected a long pass from defence in the centre circle, I played it to Ian Bryson and turned to make a run towards goal. Ian passed to Sam who shimmied past the defender, he then sent a left foot cross into the box which I met full on the