The Italian Job

This Saturday the boy Invincibile will not be the only Dan at Rugby Park with Italian connections. The founder of the Kilmarnock Supporter's Club in Italy, Dan Marcolini, will be in town for the Aberdeen game.

Dan contacted us last week to tell us about his visit and we have arranged to meet him at The Howard before the game. This will be Dan's seventh visit to Rugby Park since he first came over from his home town of Verona in 1988. Some of you may remember seeing his photo on the front page of The Kilmarnock Standard with his friend, Killie book author Bill Donnachie, on that occasion.

Despite his frequent visits, the last being in 1996, Dan has never had a tour around Rugby Park. We contacted the club about this and they have pulled out all the stops to make sure that this is one visit he will not forget. They have offered to take Dan and his friend from Glasgow on a personal tour of the stadium before the Aberdeen game, and thrown in a couple of match tickets and entry to the 1997 club to boot...and all for free. Well done Killie.

If you want to meet Dan he'll be in the pub around lunchtime before his sojourn to Rugby Park, we are sure that he'll be eager to make some new acquaintances. It's quite amazing the lengths some people go to follow their team...Allan is flying in from Arizona next week for the 'friendly' against the Yahoos!

We are not sure exactly how or even why Dan became a Killie fan but we will certainly be asking him all about it. A few things may be lost in the translation but from his e-mails it is obvious that Dan's command of the English language is better than our Italian...ciao!