Family feel as Kilsyth eye up cup shock
A FAMILY connection could be the key to Kilsyth Rangers pulling off a stunning Macron Scottish Junior Cup upset when they host the visit of last year’s beaten finalists Hurlford United on Saturday.
A certainty to feature in the home team’s starting line-up is a young striker playing in his first-ever season in the Juniors yet you might not be throwing away your hard earned money if you want to put a bet on him scoring against one of the meanest Premiership defences going the rounds.
Yes, it’s true to say those long serving Ayrshire stalwarts Chris Robertson, Richie McKillen and goalkeeper Ally Brown give little away, and have acquired a formidable reputation, but so too has Salim Kouider-Aissa since bursting onto the Duncansfield scene as a favour for his uncle and Wee Gers manager Kevin McGoldrick.
The 21-year-old has bagged 20 goals to date for the Championship outfit and his snubbing the approaches of Senior clubs has contributed in no small way to McGoldrick’s revamped side emerging as genuine promotion contenders and Cup hopefuls.
The seasoned gaffer admitted: “I initially watched Kilsyth playing on several occasions before agreeing to take the manager’s job and the main reason was that I am ambitious and didn’t want to be taking over at a club whose target was avoiding relegation.
“Neither as it turns out do the club officials here and I was given the go-ahead to release 16 of the 20-man squad I inherited and begin a building job from scratch.
“It was tough going at first and I’m not going to pretend otherwise but time and patience has seen cogs fall into place and although it could be said we have punched above our weight, the team had strung together a run of eight straight wins up until we came down to earth with a significant bump when losing 3-1 away to Irvine Vics last weekend. “The defeat was both horrible and a sore one to take so to now be taking on the best team in West Region circle – going by league placing –should have us quaking in our boots at the prospect, but we aren’t.”
Salim, a product of his Algerian father Omar’s marriage to Kevin’s sister Audrey, was on the scoresheet with Kilsyth’s goal in the defeat as he again underlined the threat he possesses.
McGoldrick insisted: “As I said earlier cogs fell into place and Salim was one of the first because being in the family I knew all about his playing career and desperately wanted to have the opportunity to coach him.
“In his early days he turned out with the youth teams of Clyde, Motherwell and Hearts before moving on to stints with Queen of the South and Stenhousemuir among others – but he’d be first to agree that he has not lived up to his potential.
“Salim actually became so discouraged with the Senior game that he dropped down to the amateur ranks to play alongside pals and was, as you might expect a revelation, scoring barrowloads of goals – so I took the plunge and asked him to join me at Kilsyth and thankfully he agreed to come.
“I will look after Kilsyth’s interests when Senior clubs come calling as they inevitably will but I will not stand in Salim’s way of a step up because he has earned it.”
McGoldrick is looking forward to Saturday’s cup clash.
“I said to the guys the other night that almost every year there is a dark horse side that makes it to the semi-final stage and why can’t it be us this time?” he said.