Quality in Scottish game has been an eye-opener for Stokes

KILMARNOCK centre-back Chris Stokes freely admits he pretty much ignored the game north of the border while plying his trade in the lower leagues in England — but claims to have been taken aback by the quality of the football he’s found in Scotland.

Stokes moved to Rugby Park from Forest Green Rovers immediately after the Ayrshire club’s relegation to the Championship and then captained Killie to the title and automatic promotion last season.

A hamstring injury suffered on the final day of a successful campaign meant he had to wait for the chance to savour life in the top division, with Derek McInnes’ side taking time to find their feet on their Premiership return.

Having started Wednesday’s 2-1 victory over St Johnstone, when he claimed an assist for the winning goal, Stokes is delighted to finally be on the big stage.

‘A lot of players who haven’t seen it or experienced it don’t realise what it’s about and look down their nose a bit,’ said

Stokes (right), who has also turned out for Crewe, Coventry, Bury and Stevenage.

‘I didn’t watch it until I was up here and now I watch a lot of the games. I probably wouldn’t have watched Hearts v Fiorentina on Thursday night if I wasn’t playing here, but I did and Scottish football is a lot better standard than I thought it was.

‘There are players I know who have played in Scotland then gone back to England and told people what it’s like, but you respect it a lot more when you’ve actually played here.’ Stokes hadn’t expected to wait as long for his first taste of life in the top flight but is determined to make up for lost time. ‘Tearing my hamstring in the final game of last season was a killer,’ he said. ‘It was tough, after doing all the hard work to win promotion, to then sit on the sidelines for as long as I did instead of enjoying the fruits of that.

‘That’s why I came to Scotland and why I moved my family up here. I wanted to play in the Premiership but I’d done the same thing in a cup tie against Hibs earlier in that campaign, so I had to spend the summer getting myself right, getting my strength back up.’

He added: ‘When you have that injury twice you need to be over-cautious and the recovery took longer than I thought because I tried to come back too quickly.

‘That was frustrating because everything seemed right but it wasn’t.

‘It was my first muscle injury but our (plastic) pitch wasn’t a factor in that — if anything, the physios seem to think it may have been due to the transition from Astro to grass. I feel fine now, though. I feel strong and I’m ready to make a contribution. Hamstrings take a little bit longer when you’re older.

‘The previous manager, Tommy Wright, made me captain last season but then the injury saw me lose it.

‘Alan Power has done a brilliant job with the armband and we are all behind him as a group.’