JIM JEFFRIES AND BILLY BROWN DEPART THE THEATRE AFTER 8 YEARS AT THE HELM!
Whether this happened as a result of the recent furore between our chairman and Kevin Kyle we will never know, but one thing is for sure... we are managerless and at a time which could determine the fate of Scotland's oldest professional football club, this latest hoo ha just has not helped. Our current situation is this - we are around £9 million in debt, second bottom of the SPL and we have a team that don't know what they are doing and if it wasn't for Ayr United having their problems on the pitch - we would surely be the laughing stock of the District.
Jim and Billy did well in their first few years in charge at the Theatre and took us to several top 6 finishes, but things did take a rapid nosedive soon after. We lost to teams we were used to beating, a leaky and spaghetti-like defence not knowing how to defend, we had a strikeforce that could not score or kept misfiring plus in addition, nobody seemed to want to tackle the opposition in in the first 10-15 minutes of the game. The team had umpteen yellows and more reds than we've had in years dished out to them (both bad refereeing and stupid tackles were to blame for that).
The home support were fast losing patience with Jim and Billy due to the lack of wins and good performances, most voted with their feet and said that they would not be back at the Theatre. In the good times Rugby Park attracted between 10,000 and 15,000 people but since Jim and Billy took over, we have only reached the 10,000 mark due to the old firm fans (realistically Ayrshire District traitors) coming to town. For the last 5 years or so attendances have been and still are fetching round about the 5,000 or 6,000 mark if we're cutting it fine. The club have tried to attract more fans but have failed to do so simply by the fact that the team are losing far too many games. We did however manage to reach a cup final, that being the CIS Cup Final in 2007, unfortunetly and unsurprisingly enough we were beaten 5-1 by Hibernian - reason being we were a shambles and were run over by the Auld Reekie side.
Our next step is to find a new manager and get the team back working together in time to prevent us being relegated into the First Division. However it could be just a wee bit too late but in contrast wins against Falkirk, St Mirren, Hamilton or St Johnstone (home and away) might just be enough to keep us up.
No doubt our District counterparts in the south will be laughing at us, however they can't exactly boast and brag about their achievements lately - erm what achievements?
K.Kingdom