There’s a taboo in football to talk about who you support. Few players nail their colours to mast. I do but does it affect my work? Absolutely NOT!
I sat among my fellow Kilmarnock fans yesterday, cheering them on against Hamilton.
You can’t change what you love. I will always support my team and it’s a right that I have reserved throughout my professional career.
That doesn’t mean I don’t love my work at Livingston or have anything other than a deep affinity for the clubs I’ve been involved with.
But who you support is built in you from an early age.
My first ever match was watching Killie against Hibs – and George Best was playing.
My dad told me I was about to watch the best player in the world but Bestie was absolutely rubbish.
I was a wide-eyed five-year-old and thought: “If that’s the best in the world then I have a real chance.”
Best was hopeless that day. It’s strange how you can recall your first game – the details that stick in your memory.
It’s also why you learn to love your team. Playing for Killie was my only dream as a kid – that and becoming a chef in the army.
There’s a taboo in football to talk about who you support. Few players nail their colours to the mast. Self-confessed Hibee Leigh Griffiths and Kyle Lafferty, who never hid his love for Rangers while playing at Hearts, are rare exceptions but you can get away with it more as a player.
As a manager it’s a bit different but at the end of the day we are grown men. It’s not something you can just switch off. But does it mean it affects my work? Absolutely not.
I remember a big hullabaloo was created by pictures of Ally McCoist and Ian Durrant being at an Old Firm title decider at Celtic Park back in 1999. There they were, current Ricki Lamie man was the odd game out in our last against Dundee. he’s now the After a 4-0 win player from the only outfield that game side that started a goal this not to have scored season. but Riki It’s quite a stat a hangshouldn’t get a up about it, just hurry-up. Kilmarnock players, celebrating amongst the Gers fans in a 3-0 win.
The reaction was hysterical – but not in a comical sense. After the game I was called by a reporter and asked how I felt, as a Killie player, watching two team-mates celebrate in the Rangers end.
Coisty and Durranty were taking pelters, the outraged brigade felt it was bang out of order.
The reporter asked if I was unhappy with it and I said: “No. What’s the problem? It’s the team they support.
“I’d be the same if Kilmarnock were winning the league and I was at another club.”
As the storm played out, my boss Bobby Williamson pulled me into his office and thanked me for doing the story, for being open and honest rather than displaying the usual mock outrage.
Back then, when we played Rangers, nobody in our dressing room was more determined than Coisty and Durranty to go out and get the win.
That’s how it works and it’s the same for me. I will be bursting to beat Kilmarnock when I lead Livingston to Rugby Park at the start of December.
No more so than anyone else but it will be a pride thing. It will also be my first time in the away dressing room at Rugby Park.
Football is all about passion. Either for your boyhood heroes or for the fans of the club who pay your wages. There was an old gentleman at Norwich who sat behind one of the goals. I had just signed and I was warming up when I heard him giving me pelters.
His language was X-certificate and apparently I wasn’t very good and we were playing with 10 men whenever I was in the side.
This went on for weeks and whenever the ball went for a corner I could hear him: “Holt you’re s****. Go back to Scotland, we’re playing with 10 men.”
Malky Mackay took me aside and told me he was glad I’d signed because he was the target before me.
I decided to confront my critic after the next bit of abuse.
I shouted for him to wait after the game as I was coming for him. It was time to sort this nonsense out, man-to-man.
At full-time I went running over and a few boys behind the goal told me he’d left 10 minutes earlier.
On the Monday I received an eight-page letter from the old guy. It was an apology.
He had supported the club for more than 40 years and just wanted everyone to be as passionate about his club as he was.
He said he gave me stick as he wanted to show that passion and how much he wanted his side to succeed. It was a lesson for me.
All fans should share that passion and appreciate how much a club means to people. We shouldn’t need reminded every time the ball goes for a corner.