The Herald on Sunday

Locke and key

Former Hearts manager has 90 minutes left to stop Central Park side tumbling out of SPFL. Graeme Macpherson reports

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THIS was football but not as Gary Locke used to know it. A man who not so long ago led Hearts out for a League Cup final at Hampden has had to become accustomed to less salubrious settings in the subsequent years.

As he stood at the side of a fairly beat-up artificial pitch plonked in the middle of a leafy park in East Kilbride yesterday, a tiny grandstand in front of him, a row of cars parked behind the goal to his right and the graceful, metronomic whirring of two giant windmills to his left, he must have taken a moment to wonder just how it had come to this.

Locke’s latest mission is to try to save Cowdenbeat­h from a third successive relegation, one that would see them spiral out of the SPFL altogether. Having finished bottom of League Two, the team from Fife have been catapulted into a two-legged play-off against East Kilbride, the Lowland League champions, who then went on to beat Buckie from the Highland League in the pyramid play-off.

A competitiv­e goalless draw here – in which Cowdenbeat­h squandered a late penalty – means the outcome is very much in the balance going into the second leg at Central Park on Saturday.

Locke at least looked like he was enjoying himself. At venues like this – a million miles from the noise and fury of Tynecastle, Celtic Park or Hampden – everybody can hear you scream. As he trooped off the field at full-time, Locke could not help but pick up on a home supporter offering a caustic jibe in his direction. He looked over, smiled and offered something inaudible in response.

It must feel like something of a penance for Locke and his venerable assistant Billy Brown to be operating at this level but Locke is content just to be still involved.

“It’s a bit different for me, coming to places like this and I’ve said that a few times since coming here,” admitted Locke. “Players not able to play in games because they have other commitment­s, for example, I find that a wee bit difficult. But I’ve enjoyed it in the few months I’ve been here and it’s just been a wee bit unfortunat­e the way the season has gone.

“You can hear every shout from the crowd and things like that but when you’re out of the game you miss the buzz of being involved on a Saturday.”

Grounds similar to East Kilbride’s bijou 400-seater K Park are what await Cowdenbeat­h if they end up tumbling out of the senior set-up for the first time since 1881. There they would encounter at least one familiar face.

East Stirlingsh­ire were relegated out of League Two last year by Edinburgh City and failed to return at the first attempt. It will likely be similarly fraught for Cowdenbeat­h if they end up falling through the trapdoor into the Lowland League.

Theirs has been a dizzying descent. Just two years ago, they were in the Championsh­ip alongside Hearts, Hibernian and Rangers. But down they went, and again last season, and now they find themselves desperatel­y pressing the brakes to try to stop themselves careering over the cliff, the old school institutio­n fighting for their lives against progressiv­e new clubs like East Kilbride.

Establishe­d only seven years ago, ambition oozes out of the team known by the locals as Kilby. A Scottish Cup tie against Celtic last year was a previous high watermark but now they have bigger things in mind.

The senior set-up has welcomed a raft of new entrants in recent decades but none from the west of Scotland. East Kilbride, the first of the new towns with a population of around 70,000 and seemingly one roundabout per person, ought to be large enough to sustain senior football and it would be instructiv­e to see how they developed were they to clinch promotion.

Locke will be hoping they don’t get the opportunit­y to find out.

 ?? Photograph: SNS ?? Cowdenbeat­h’s Kyle Miller (right) battles for the ball at K Park yesterday
Photograph: SNS Cowdenbeat­h’s Kyle Miller (right) battles for the ball at K Park yesterday

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