The signing of David Lilley heralded a press conference today at Rugby
Park and we took the opportunity to talk to the man himself plus his
manager and fellow new signing Eric Skora. Davie Mackinnon kicked things
off by introducing the players and went on to tell us about the
club's plans to boost the player's morale before the Scottish Cup
game...surely our best chance of an upset in the three upcoming games.
After the Celtic game the squad will fly out to a training camp in
Barcelona, possibly taking Barca's match in if flight times allow. It may
seem a strange move for a club with cash flow problems like ours but the
club realises how much this game could mean to us and are making every
effort to give the player's a real boost ahead of time.
No one has said anything outright (and they probably won't) but it has
been alluded to that our Chairman will be making all the 'arrangements'
and with his background in the travel industry we think that you can take
it as read that the club will not have much of a bill to foot.
David Lilley was the first under the spotlight. He said: "I think
the guys at Partick will make a real fight of it but when I was given the
chance of coming to Kilmarnock it seemed a lot less risky career wise. I
spoke to Martin Hardie before making any decision and he only had good
things to say about the manager and the club. I will be in the squad for
the Celtic game and although it will be tough there is no better way to
start. No one has done well at Parkhead this season so effectively there
is no real pressure on us, we can go out there and try our best."
He went on: "I'm familiar with quite a few of the players in the
squad, including Danny Invincibile! I actually spoke to him immediately
after the game he was injured and he understood that my challenge was
badly timed and not malicious."
David has been on the fringes of the Scotland set up before so we asked
him if he had any international aspirations. He said: "My main aim at
the moment is to establish myself at Killie first and hopefully if
everything goes to plan then who knows, things may develop on that front.
I will be going to Barcelona with the squad despite being cup tied, it
will be a good time to get to know the rest of the players...I made sure
that was in the contract!"
We then asked David the most important question of all...and he assures
us that he does not live anywhere near Dunfermline! The interviews with
Eric Skora and Jim Jefferies will appear elsewhere on the site when we've
had time to transcribe them.
