Kilmarnock FC – Scottish League Champions: 1964-65
Scottish Cup Winners: 1920, 1929, 1997
Kilmarnock Football Club is a Scottish football team based in the town of Kilmarnock, Ayrshire. Founded in 1869, “Killie” are the oldest professional club in Scotland. Home matches are played at Rugby Park. They are currently members of the Scottish Premier League and are managed by Jim Jefferies. Their most notable player is the former goalkeeper John Shaw, well renowned for his saves which included conceding no goals in over 50 matches and his overhead scorpion kicks.
Kilmarnock started the 2006/07 season brightly despite losing 4-1 away to Celtic on the opening day.Young striker Steven Naismith scored a contender for goal of the season against Hibernian in August before going to Arsenal for a trial. Rangers dropped their first points to Killie in four years after a last-minute Naismith penalty earned a draw for Kilmarnock. In September Jefferies suffered his worst defeat as Killie manager after a 5-0 loss at Motherwell. Killie are ensured of a top 6 finish for the 2nd season in a row, whilst a tremendous run in the League Cup has ensured a place in the final. Rolf Harris and Steve Lima have recorded a special version of ‘Fine Day’ with the Killie Choir to celebrate the club reaching the final, and the song is now available for download. Unfortunately for Killie fans, their team was comprehensively beaten 5-1 in the final by Hibs.
This was how Kilmarnock fared last year in Barga :
KILLIE BARGA BARROWLOAD Jul 11 2007 By Andy Galloway
KILMARNOCK’S shooting practice over in Italy has obviously paid off — they won a bounce match 14-0 against local team Barga on Monday night.Colin Nish and Aime Koudou each scored a hat-trick while Garry Hay, Iain Flannigan and Eric Skora found the net twice. Paul Di Giacomo and Craig Bryson were also on target.
The pre-season friendly matches back home kick off on Monday night with a visit to Third Division Dumbarton.
But boss Jim Jefferies has been pleased with the trip to Il Ciocco and has seen a couple of injured players return to training.
He said: “It’s been terrific for us. It’s been hot weather throughout, and the players haven’t been off long so fitness levels have been good.
“The heat has been searing in the morning when we’ve started training and we’ve got some benefit from that.
“We’ve done work on our speed and stamina with recovery times between shorter distances.
“There’s also been some circuit work but we also allowed the players an early touch of the ball.
“Simon Ford and David Lilley have been able to join in, but Danny Invincibile still has a slight niggling injury which we have to be careful of.
“We took the game with Dumbarton to tie in with the one at Raith Rovers two days later.
“We have a decent size of first team squad and over those two games, every player will get as long as possible to play.â€
Despite the good news that David Fernandez is ahead of schedule in his return from injury, there’s no chance of him featuring in the pre-season games.
The speculation over Steven Naismith has now died down, with Rangers officially withdrawing their latest offer, and the gaffer maintains his young prodigy is knuckling down to some hard work in Italy.
Jim added: “Steven was down to come with us on the trip and nothing prevailed. I think there has been a lot of made-up stuff, probably to unsettle him. He has been working extremely hard over here.
“We’ve had a fantastic lift with the news that David is ahead of schedule, but there’s no way he’ll play in pre-season.
“He’s done much more over here than expected, but it could be about September before he can play again.
“There are several players joining us over in Italy for the first time, and they will have been well warned by their teammates of what to expect.
“Everything is going to plan so far, ahead of the new season.â€
Killie were due to face Barga again last night (Wednesday) before flying home today. – source
