MICK WANTS KILBY TREBLE
Boss sets target but promotion is ultimate aim
Mick Kennedy is challenging East Kilbride to claim a historic treble this season – but knows it will mean nothing if they don’t win promotion to the SPFL.
Kilby have all but wrapped up the Lowland League title, with two wins from their final six games required, depending on results elsewhere.
And last night [Tuesday] they were set to host Gala Fairydean Rovers in the last four of the Lowland Cup, before a South Challenge Cup semi-final at Tranent on March 30.
The K-Park club have never secured a league title and cup double before and while Kennedy would like to make a bit of history in that sense, he knows that will still be regarded as a failure if he fails to deliver the club’s first-ever promotion to League Two and the professional ranks next season.
Speaking ahead of the Gala game, he said: “I don’t think the club has ever won a treble so it would be fantastic to do that.
“But we will try and get to the finals first over the next couple of weeks. There are some difficult games ahead but we are in a really strong position.
“The challenge for the group is to win all the competitions we are in, but we all know if we win the league and two cups but fall short in the play-offs then the season will be seen as a failure.
“That is the reality of it and nobody can hide from that. It is something we need to accept.
“It is absolutely crazy that we could win the league and two cups and it not be a success, but that is the system we are in with the play-offs to get to League Two.
“I had that at [former club] Darvel. If you don’t win the playoffs, it is so demoralising.
“It was a bit different at Darvel because we had like 22 games in a six-week period, it was properly intense, and we went into the play-offs with loads of injuries.
“But the motivation is to win every week and, for me, it is about getting performance levels back to where I expect us to be.
“We’ll concentrate on Gala Fairydean to get to a cup final and then we’ll look to the next game at Bo’ness in the league and then Tranent in the other cup.
“We are in a good place but there is still loads of work to be done. I’ve said to the boys that when they look back on their careers, they look at how many trophies they picked up.
“There is no point being in semi-finals or finals if you don’t win them, so we will see how things look at the end of the season.”