1980-81 Davie Sneddon (left
below) is fired as manager, and is replaced by Jim Clunnie in Jan
of 1981. Killie only win 5 of 36 matches and are relegated yet again
finishing 9th.
1/1/80 Ian Gibson & Roy
Aitken
Celtic fans chant on News Years
day was "your going down again", and the Killie fans response "We don't
give a Fu*k".
John Bourke
leads Killie scorers with 5 goals.
80-81
Programme 20P
Kilmarnock 1980-81
1981-82
Killie win 6-0 against QoS the last day of the season, and finish second
to earn promotion back to the Premier League. Their record was 17 wins &
17 draws from 39 matches.
John Bourke led all scorers with 14 goals.
1982-83 Killie experience
only 3 wins that season. Killie finished bottom with only 17 points from
36 matches. Eleven long years were to be suffered by the
blue & white faithful before their Premier return was to happen ! Brian
Gallagher (left) nets 9 goals for Killie.
1983-84 No quick return for
Killie as they finish 6th in the first division with a record of 16 wins
and 6 draws from 39 matches.
1984-85
Killie's fortune's worsen as they
are
now only mid-table club. Killie finish 12th with 12 wins and 10 draws in
39 matches. Jim Clunnie (left) resigns as
manager, and is replaced by former player (and legend)
Eddie Morrison.
Killie suffer one of their worst moments as they lose at non-league
Inverness Thistle 3-0 in the Scottish Cup. Killie buy
Blair Millar
from Airdrie for 8,000 pounds, and
ask for the payments to be made in stages. He goes on to lead Killie
with 12 goals. Average attendance falls to 1,351.
Derek McDicken is released by the club after 400+ appearances for
the club.
1985-86
Morrison provides his old club with a lift guiding them to a respectable
third place finish. On the last day of the season Killie defeated Ayr
Utd 3-2 at Rugby Park .... Ayr are relegated, but a more important sign
of the times was only 2,369 fans watched the match ! Killie had 18 wins
and 8 draws in 39 matches. Mitchell & Struthers are club sponsors. Ian
Bryson nets 14 goals for Killie.
1986-87 Morrison with no money to spend sees his club finish 6th.
Killie had 17 wins and 11 draws in 44 matches. Ian Bryson nets 10 goals
for Killie.
Yvonne Auld (below left) models the 80's Killie top!
87-88 Programme 50P
1987-88 Killie win 1-0 at
Partick Thistle, the last day of the season to avoid relegation. Killie
finish 10th win only 13 wins and 11 draws from 44 matches.
Killie lose 2-1 to Raith and are relegated 4 weeks later !
1988-89
Killie buy
Ray Montgomerie
from Dumbarton for 12,000 pounds. Tourhill Joinery become team sponsor.
Eddie
Morrison is fired as manager after 2 wins in 13 games,
Eddie left
Killie with a sad heart in November 1988 and later became Assistant
Manager at Morton.
Eddie Morrison
was and will always be one of the great Killie Legends.
Jim Fleeting (right) becomes the new manager,
along with a new Board of Directors later that year, including Jim's
brother Bobby Fleeting. He
had the backing of Laurel Chadwick & John Moffat of A.T. Mays. Killie
were relegated that season despite
winning 6-0 the last
day of the season (after Clyde get a 94 minute penalty to stay up )
at QoS, with
Willie Watters (left) netting 5 times.
Killie finish 13th with 10 wins and 14 draws. Jim Fleeting also adds Jim
McSherry & Frank Coulston to his management team...... the Scottish
Second Division now loomed !!
Willie Watters scores 12 goals for
Killie.
Alan Robertson
1989 saw
Alan Robertson
play in his 607th match for Killie, to become Killie's all
time appearance leader.
1989-90 Some good news for
all Killie fans as the famous blue & white stripes return, and A Plant
become the shirt sponsors. In Nov 1989 the Fleeting consortium is
confirmed, as the prior board is ousted. Two of the principal players
were Jim Moffat (of A.T. Mays) & Laurel Chadwick (Fleeting's
mother in law from FL, USA. She was the only woman director in British
football!)
The Late Jim Moffat, Mrs Laurel Chadwick & Bobby
Fleeting
Within weeks Bobby Fleeting is
installed as Killie's new Chairman, and
then within days 33 old Scottish internationalist
Tommy Burns is lured
away from Celtic. During this same period
Alan McCulloch
sets a new record for Killie with seven
consecutive shutouts. He plays his last game on Jan 27th 1990. Killie
become the first team to be knocked out of the Scottish Cup ... on
penalty kicks ! Again Killie's league fate comes down to the last day of
the
season they needed a draw, with some help,
or a
win over Cowdenbeath to ensure promotion. With nine minutes to play,
and the game tied 1-1 Killie are awarded a penalty kick. Up strode club
captain
Davie Mackinnon,
(right) he hammered the ball has hard as he could high into the center
of the goal. Replays showed he just missed hitting Beath's keeper Willie
Lamont by inches, the relief of scoring was evident for all the 8,526
fans to see !
Killie hold on to win 2-1, and
finish second with 22 wins and 4 draws, scoring 67 goals. Top Killie
scorer was Willie
Watters with 23 goals.
