Jefferies proud

THE financial benefits of reaching a cup final must be considered markedly increased when it is remembered that Jim Jefferies has built a team able to get so far on a transfer fund of precisely zero. He has perverted the normal assumption that nothing comes from nothing. Instead, under his wily watch, Kilmarnock have flourished to the extent that this week has already seen the Rugby Park side all but cement their place in the top six without having even played. Motherwell's defeat by Aberdeen on Tuesday evening means Kilmarnock can concentrate on this weekend's final while free of attendant concerns. Jefferies' measured ways in the transfer market - only the ineligible former Queen of the South player Willie Gibson and injured David Lilley have cost fees - perhaps helped loosen purse strings enough to send the squad to a top hotel in St Andrews this week in preparation for Sunday's CIS Insurance Cup final clash with Hibernian. Jefferies is constantly demanded to compare his achievements with Kilmarnock to those at Hearts, where he reached three finals and won a Scottish Cup in 1998. "The scales are different," he said, having acknowledged the emotional context of a supporter and former player bringing delight to the streets of Gorgie nine years ago. "But, in terms of what Billy [Brown] and I have had to do here over the last two or three seasons in terms of reducing the wage bill, this is a better achievement. None of the players who will play on Sunday has cost me a penny in the transfer market," continued Jefferies. "You can count the substitutes in that as well." It makes it more remarkable that Jefferies has continued to implement progress at Rugby Park five years after having arrived from a difficult posting at Bradford. But he is desperate to avoid the pit-fall of thinking that simply being at Hampden on Sunday is enough. The veteran of four finals as manager - he was keen to see his B&Q Cup final triumph with Falkirk in 1993 added to his Hearts achievements - is alert to the phenomenon which has ambushed the ambition of too many sides in the past. Jefferies himself has witnessed players fall prey to the notion that by merely being included in a cup final side a battle has been won. A heavy Scottish Cup final defeat to Rangers when with Hearts in 1996 was perhaps partly attributable to this destructive belief. "Sometimes players think that by simply being selected they have cracked it," he said. "I have warned the players - don't accept just being picked. Don't think you are going to please the wife, family or girlfriend just by being named in the side. They've all been telling the papers that they're playing for cup final places. What I am trying to avoid is the feeling that this is where it stops. It doesn't. It stops when you have given everything you have got. "Don't go out on the park and not play," stressed Jefferies. "It can happen. Players will tell you that themselves. Hibs are an example. They went out there a few years ago against Livingston, and maybe some of them didn't perform on the day." Jefferies has proved exceptionally shrewd in the construction of a side which has won five of their last seven matches. Not only has the canny policy cheered the Kilmarnock bankers, but, by picking up players desperate either to kick-start careers or simply make the breakthrough for a first time, he has ensured maximum desire courses through the squad. Allan Johnston, the veteran midfielder, represents the former clan, while Frazer Wright, a long-time fixture in a Stranraer team of moderate achievement, heads the latter group. "Allan was the one I was most pleased at being able to get," recalled Jefferies. "He'll tell you how I was constantly in touch with him and his agent. I worked with him as a boy, and I knew he could give us something extra. I know he didn't do so well in his first year, but there were reasons for that. What is unbelievable is that we got him for nothing, and he was willing to take a wage-cut. We told him that if we got into the top six we could give him a bit more. It told you something about the player that he wanted to come after a difficult few years with injury, and being pushed about on loan." "Frazer Wright is someone who came in last season, and a few players thought I must be mad when he turned up at training," continued Jefferies. "'What's the gaffer got here?,' they were asking themselves. But we'd watched him a few times and thought a lot of his problems were down to him having been part-time for seven years. We wanted to hone him and get him fit, because he had certain attributes. He has never been out because of form, and is now about to take part in a major final." NAISMITH KEEPS FOCUS STEVEN Naismith has worked wonders so far in the CIS Cup competition, writes Alan Pattullo. Not only did the in-form striker score the semi-final hat-trick against Falkirk which earned Kilmarnock a place in the final against Hibs, but the local hero has risen to prominence in the last two seasons to the extent that he was pursued by Arsenal last year. "I heard all the transfer speculation in the last transfer window but the way I see it is that I am Kilmarnock player and until anyone makes a bid I will remain a Kilmarnock player," the 20 year-old striker said. "I have signed a contract until 2010."