THE BONNY, THE BOLD AND THE BEAUTIFUL
Community spirit is the guiding priniciple at Thistle, while the pyramid offers boundless opportunity for ambitious Meadow
MIDDAY in Moscow. The Ayrshire hamlet is but a staging post to the wonders of another day in Scottish football. The Synergy Stadium, resplendent at the end of what seems an industrial estate, stands in the sun, with verdant acres to its side. There is the palpable expectation of matchday, there is talk of legends.
There is a connection to the Famous Five, to Sir Alex Ferguson, even to Stuart Hogg, and to a myriad of Scottish Cups won at all levels.
But, above all, it is about the game, indeed giving people a chance to play the game. This is the underlying purpose on a gleaming artificial turf.
Ian Higgins has the title of community development manager at Bonnyton Thistle. He might more accurately be described as keeper of the flame, producer of players and, yes, waste collector as he scurries to collect the rubbish and dump it in a skip.
His association with the club stretches back to 1978, but includes an important link to 1950.
‘My father played for this club then,’ he says. John Higgins went on to play for Hibs (1952-1957), St Mirren and Swindon Town. He also took part in the first European Cup as a Hibs player and was a teammate of the Famous Five.
‘He passed on four years ago,’ says his son. ‘He had always had an affection for Bonnyton and, indeed, Kilmarnock. He always wanted to play for Kilmarnock. But Hibs scouted him and that was that.’
His son has his own claim to football glory as a coach. Bonnyton Thistle was once primarily a youth side. Higgins took them to nine Scottish Cup finals, winning five.
The senior side is now playing its first full season in the West of Scotland League. The bar has been raised but the ambition thrives and the family link continues.
‘We want everything to be done under the Bonnyton ethos of community, giving everyone a chance to play.’
The senior team provides a pathway to talented players but there is an amateur side for those who just want a game on a Saturday, and teams for those with mental health and physical challenges, the imminent setting up of a girls’ side and the mini-kickers that encompasses those born in 2016.
A former coach of the mini kickers is Katie Higgins, granddaughter of John, daughter of Ian. A nursery school teacher, she now helps with the club’s communications.
‘I grew up around this club,’ she says. ‘It is my happy place. It reminds me of the past. I obviously know of papa’s playing career and I am happy to help out my dad as I see how stressed he can get.’
Any pressure does not restrict him on this match day. He gestures with an outstretched arm to fields facing the club house. ‘We have plans to develop pitches,’ he says. ‘We want this to be a space where everyone can come and play.’
THE link to Kilmarnock is strong. The association with the Cup, in whatever variety, is obvious.
Paul Wright, who scored the winning goal for Killie in the 1997 Scottish Cup final against Falkirk, is now assistant to manager Alan Robertson, who worked for the Rugby Park side for 30 years. Neil Wilson, secretary to Bonnyton’s first team, also played for Kilmarnock for three years.
Their passion is now shared at the Synergy Stadium. ‘It gives me satisfaction,’ says Wright of his coaching role. He admits it can also induce frustration.
‘You can’t expect the players to be of the stature of full-time pros. You have to rein it back a little.
But there is frustration if you are not producing results.’
Is he different from the player who excelled at Aberdeen, Queens Park Rangers, Hibs and St Johnstone?
‘No, I am still crabbit,’ he says with a smile. But he is deeply serious when he adds: ‘Sometimes you have to be honest with players, sometimes you don’t want to be but you have to be. I am old school. I was brought up under Alex Ferguson and Archie Knox at Aberdeen. They taught you to be a winner. That was what it was all about.’
So why is such a prominent former player spending his afternoons down the leagues? ‘You have to have a game on a Saturday,’ he says. ‘There is nothing else to it.’
This sentiment is shared by Robertson. ‘I came here after I retired as a coach at Kilmarnock,’ he says. ‘This club has progressive plans and I thought it was worthwhile being part of that.’
He adds: ‘Football has been such a big part of my life. I wanted to stay involved.’
The task has been onerous. The jump from the South of Scotland League to the Premier Division of the West of Scotland League has pitched Bonnyton in amongst Junior aristocracy in the shape of Auchinleck Talbot, Pollok, Glenafton and of course, Irvine Meadow. Seven teams, too, are
HUGH MacDONALD HEADS TO THE SYNERGY STADIUM FOR A FIERCELY CONTESTED LOWER LEAGUE CLASH
scheduled to be relegated. Robertson, with Bonnyton bottom of the pile, is aware of the task.
‘We want to develop players but know we have to get results too,’ he says.
Wilson points out Bonnyton is ‘part of his football education’. He played for the club in 1970-71 and was a coach in eight Scottish Youth Football Association finals from 1998.
‘This has been a big step-up,’ he concedes of a club formed in 1912 but who adopted the senior side only four years ago.
‘But the aims remain the same. The club is here to provide opportunities for good players and to give a chance to play for everyone else. It is a lot of hard work but we are a close bunch.’
Wilson played for Hurlford United for 13 seasons before becoming an amateur coach, He knows the realities at this level.
‘I could tell you some tales,’ he says of association with the world of Ayrshire Juniors.
He restricts himself to the observation that ‘there were a few hairy moments’.
He catalogues the impact a life of football has had on his body. But there is another pain.
In a call yesterday, he reflects: ‘You know, the hurt of the defeat is still the same for me after all these years. But the hope will return by next Saturday.’
ONE cannot quite bask in glory on an October day in Ayrshire. But Colin Spence is warmed by a result that has come by way of what appears to be an own goal but is charitably awarded to Kinlay Bilham, the Meadow defender, whose header was on target before any opposition player intervened.
‘This is a tough league and Bonnyton are not a bad side,’ says Spence post-match. ‘We had to grind it out.’
Spence is a graduate of Bonnyton, winning the Scottish Youth Cup for the side. ‘I was scouted here and went on to play for Gretna,’ he says. Gratitude stops at the touchline, however.
‘This is a dog-eat-dog business,’ he says, but grins when Higgins passes. ‘I was a scrawny 15-year-old when I was here and he taught me some lessons.’
An Irvine boy who still lives in the town, he does not need any lessons on the historic and indeed contemporary significance of Meadow.
‘I know what this club means. I know what a privilege it is to be a manager here at 36 years of age. I meet fans in the street, so I know what it means to them, too.’
The pyramid system offers great rewards to ambitious clubs. Meadow, three times Scottish Cup winners, have a route to the very top of the Scottish game.
‘There was once a glass ceiling
I was a scrawny 15-year-old here and he taught me some lessons
for Junior teams but that was wrong and now there are great possibilities,’ he says. He knows, too, there are repercussions for poor results. ‘It is brutal,’ he says. ‘You can have a couple of defeats and can be looking over your shoulder.’
looking on at pitchside is Brian McColm, who has undertaken a three-hour drive to watch his son, Dean, play in midfield for Bonnyton. His laddie is a Hawick boy, a friend of lions full-back and Scotland rugby captain Stuart Hogg.
‘He always wanted to play football from the times he was on the street with his friends,’ says his father, who coached him from the age of eight in Hawick. ‘Aye, I’m proud of him,’ he says.
He is, of course, an interested spectator but a reserved one. A clutch of Meadow schoolboys behind the goals is more boisterous. They are bedecked in blue and a Meadow fan of more advanced years calls out to them: ‘How are the Medda Ultras?’
They are full of mischief, devoid of malice.
Asked why they support the Medda, they reply in unison with a chant of homage to their heroes.
Asked if they have ever thought of supporting Rangers or Celtic or any ‘big team’, one lad replies to the obvious acclaim of the others: ‘Are you daft?’ The question is rhetorical. They all know the answer.