Kilmarnock - Rugby Park

7^th April 2001

Kilmarnock 2-1 Dunfermline

Still not really a Pars fan (that would come later), I chose this game nevertheless, as it was one of the few played that day with anything riding on it.  Kilmarnock had just secured a top six finish and Dunfermline needed a win to maintain any hope of joining them.  

So in with the away support I went, who seemed to take great delight in attempting to wind-up Ally McCoist, then busy winding down his playing days at Rugby Park.  

In a nod to both his burgeoning media career and jack-the-lad reputation, the visiting choir set up a chant of “McCoist has shagged Sue Barker”, to which the cheeky chappy himself gave a vigorous nod and lascivious grin.  This response seemed to cheer the visiting half-wits inordinately, but Wee Coisty soon shut them up with a delightful opening goal two minutes before the break.

A cross from Alan Mahood on the Killie right reached McCOIST eight metres out, he sold Andrius Skerla a hilarious dummy before prodding the ball past an equally flummoxed Marco Ruitenbeek.  I am fairly sure this was McCoist’s last goal in competitive football, and I feel somewhat honoured to have witnessed it.  

He retired the following month, with a career total of 403 goals in 772 matches, and although a deal of these were shooting fish in a barrel tap-ins for a then obscenely affluent Teddy Bears, it was still impressive by anyone’s standards.

Not quite sure what is going on here - nobody seems particularly interested in the ball.

The Rugby Park East stand.

In the second-half Lee BULLEN briefly pulled the Pars back level on 61 minutes, but parity lasted only six minutes before Gus MacPHERSON bashed one in to put Killie back in front, a lead they kept until the end with little difficulty.

And, Yes I did try one of the famed Killie Pies at half-time (supposedly the best to be had in Scotland), and it was, well, you know, OK.  Nice, but just a pie.  It contained no recognisable pieces of ovine anatomy, which is really all you can ask of a pie sold at a Scottish football ground.


The main entrance to Rugby Park.

Kilmarnock FC's odd little badge - once described as
two squirrels autographing a football.

Panorama of Rugby Park, Kilmarnock.