More Murray Park than Ibrox, but Barry seems right at home in Fife
For Barry Ferguson, the territory is familiar, even if the environment, as yet, is not.
A comfortable 2-0 win over Gala Fairydean Rovers in his first game in charge of Kelty Hearts means his side are top of the Lowland League.
He knows what it means to summit tables at the top level – and what it takes to stay there.
His task now is to lead this more modest – but no less heartfelt – club to its own Promised Land. Ferguson’s joy at full-time was evident.
“It was great,” he said of the experience. “Waking up this morning, I had the butterflies that I missed.
“The staff will probably think I’m a bit crazy because when I came in, I was climbing the walls!
“But, listen, I was just excited to get going because I know the potential that’s here.
“How far they’ve come in three years is unbelievable, and the group of players in there deserve to go on a successful journey.
“It’s not just on the field, off the field, too. There’s a new stand going in next March and another one in the summer.
“They’re properly ambitious and they run the club right.
“From the first day I walked in here to speak to them, I’ve had a warm welcome.
“There’s an authenticity here. It’s right through the club. They’re accommodating and they’re great to work with.
“I’ve only been here since the start of the week, but I can tell right away that, hopefully, this will be a happy journey.”
Ambition, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder.
We tend to think of it as something that fuels those almost uniformly banal go-getting types – somebody driven; somebody with an expensive gym membership and more than one body warmer; somebody with a five-year plan to lease an Audi.
But even those people, with their dreams zipped up around their torsos, need a launch pad.
In a sense, Barry Ferguson isn’t one of them. After all, he has already achieved more in his 40 years than most people manage in a lifetime.
He isn’t a go-getter. He’s a went-and-gotter. But that was then – as a player with Rangers, Scotland, Birmingham City, Blackburn Rovers and Blackpool.
This is now – manager of Kelty Hearts. From where he has been in his career, it is a step down. There is no arguing that.
But it could be a grave mistake to view it as a full-stop.
Ambition fuels Ferguson.
That’s what drew him to deepest Fife, to a club that wears its lowly, Lowland League status the same way a McDonalds burgerflipper with his sights set on the manager’s job wears a hair net and a baseball cap.
Kelty Hearts want to be an SPFL club – and they want Barry Ferguson to get them there. It looks like a marriage of convenience. Ambition meeting ambition, both parties hoping they rub along successfully to their mutual benefit.
Almost certainly, that’s exactly what it is at this stage. But it could yet turn out to be a union made in heaven.
New Central Park, Ferguson’s new stomping ground, ain’t Ibrox. At a push, there’s room for 3000 fans, and the atmosphere is more the Murray Park he trained at with Rangers than the raucous Govan stadium where he captained the Light Blues.
But it’s smart.
The club’s desire to grow is clear to see, with a new seated stand running most of the length of one side, and two covered standing enclosures on the other.
Once the crowd of 560 filled them up, Ferguson’s side were quickly in business.
Their 11th minute lead, thanks to a drilled effort from Stuart Cargill, was well-deserved.
By the time Ciaren Chalmers made it two on 26 minutes, they were cruising.
Stephen Husband, formerly of Blackpool and Dunfermline, purred around the midfield without breaking a sweat, recycling the ball, spreading the play, directing those around him.
Never mind that leased Audi. At this level, Husband looks like a Rolls Royce.
He, along with guys like stand-out centrehalf Errol Douglas, will be vital to Kelty and Ferguson’s shared dream.
On yesterday’s evidence, there is no reason at all why it can’t come true.