The Ayrshire Derby Is Back Tomorrow Night - Goodie-Goodie

BACK when I were nowt bu' a lad, the sporting rivalry between Ayr and Kilmarnock was unique in Scotland. Ayrshire's two biggest toons didn't just go at each other on the fitba park – there was mutual antagonism also on the rugby and cricket pitches. No other two neighbouring towns in Scotland faced each other, at the highest domestic level, in the three sports.

Sadly, the Kilmarnock rugby and cricket clubs have since fallen by the wayside somewhat, and, with the demise of the Ayrshire Cup, the fitba teams have not met regularly for almost a decade.

But, that long wait will end at Somerset Park, tomorrow night, when the Honest Men welcome Killie in a Betfred Cup tie, which will be televised live on BT Sport TV. I am sure Chris Sutton will enjoy his trip to Ayr, as an old rivalry resumes.

Jackie McInally - played for both Ayr United and Kilmarnock

At one point in the 1980s and 1990s, I was: “the only neutral in Ayrshire”, since my Saturday football beat involved reporting from Somerset Park one week, and Rugby Park the next. OK, the other hacks were well-aware, for me my second team was Kilmarnock – in Ayrshire, your local junior side ALWAYS comes first – but, for all my insistence that: Brown; Richmond and Watson; Beattie, Toner and Kennedy; Stewart, McInally, Kerr, Black and Muir was the greatest XI ever to take the field in Ayrshire senior football, I still had a guid opinion on the abilities of the likes of Ian McAllister, “Dixie” Ingram, Eric Morris, Henry Templeton, John Sludden and Hughie Sproat in a United shirt. That said, “Rambo” was only ever half the player his faither, “Big Jackie” was.

As did his son Alan "Rambo" McInally

The diehards in the press box, Mike Wilson of the Ayrshire Post, and Alex Milligan of the Kilmarnock Standard, struggled to work-out how I could split my affections down the middle, but, as I pointed out – the afore-mentioned McInallys, Jim McSherry, Jim Fleeting, Robert Connor, Robert Reilly and Hughie Burns, to name a handful off the top of my head, found no problem in turning-out for both sides.

So, I will be an interested observer tomorrow night – on TV, unfortunately, due to a prior engagement. Mind you, that will not prevent me from giving an opinion – I just feel, hard-nosed Ayrshire-born pros such as Kris Boyd and Kirk Broadfoot will rather die than see the other half win, so, I expect league status to be maintained and an away win. But, that said, it is never a good idea to forecast the outcome of a Scottish sorting derby – these, after all, are the 21^st century successors to the old clan battles of the Killing Times and before.

The pre-game craic in the Wee Windaes will be good tomorrow.

SPEAKING of Kilmarnock and of Ayrshire football, news came through from Australia earlier this week of the passing of former Killie defender Billy Cook. A Valley boy, from Galston, Billy captained a Scotland Schools team which included future Hibs and England centre forwardJoe Baker, future Rangers and Liverpool left-half Billy Stevenson and Sammy Reid, who scored that goal for Berwick Rangers against Glasgow Rangers.

Billy Cook - back row, third from right, in the Australia team which faced North Korea

Billy signed for Killie, but, had to be content with just the odd game, when Matt Watson was injured, before heading off to Australia, where he played nine games for his adopted country, he is Socceroo #176. Two of these games were against the Scotland World Tour XI in 1967, where he marked a certain Alex Ferguson.

His last years were blighted by dementia, but, Billy enjoyed a good life in Australia and was always welcomed at Rugby Park on his trips home. He is one of the few Scots to have played against Scotland in an international. Australia awarded full caps for the two games against Scotland, the SFA has still to uprate the games to full-cap status. Billy also played against the legendary North Koreans in the qualifying rounds for the 1966 World Cup, when the Australian manager was future Celtic boss Dr Joe Venglos.

I SEE the controversy continues to rumble on about Rangers' EBTs and the fall-out from “the Big Tax Case”. As I have said before – had they known EBTs were a no-no, Rangers would have found some other way to pay their expensively-recruited players, trying to say they cheated by bringing them in will never work.

But, there are grounds for some sort of retrospective sanctions on the grounds of the so-called side letters written to the players. However, to take that action will require the SFA to acknowledge, they did not properly consider their own rules when dealing with the case.

Now, common on guys, when have the SFA EVER admitted to getting something wrong? It simply will not happen. I will be amazed if Rangers are ever retrospectively punished for breaking the rules.

What's done is done, forget it and move on, because I expect Hell to freeze over before any SFA blazer, past or present, puts his hand up and says: “We were in the wrong there”.