Scott Brown trying to shake off ex-Celtic captain tag at Ayr United as previous boss jailed for £15m fraud

It seems appropriate that among the programme covers forming part of a table-top design inside the Ayr United hub where Scott Brown is speaking to reporters is from a game against Celtic.

Priced just 15p, it’s from Hogmanay 1977 – the last season that the Somerset Park club were in the Scottish top flight. Ayr won 2-1 with a late goal from Brian McLaughlin, who had just joined from Celtic. The game was held up five minutes to allow the large crowd in.

There could be similar scenes this evening when Brown is pitted against Brendan Rodgers for the first time. Over 9,000 tickets have already been sold for a game arranged to open the impressive new North Stand at Somerset Park. Hopes are high in the area that the meeting can herald a more permanent return to the big time for Ayr under Brown, who harbours similarly lofty ambitions having taken the team from ninth to a point off fifth place in the Championship last season. The process of reinventing himself remains ongoing.

Celtic captain Scott Brown (left) with manager Brendan Rodgers as he prepared to play his 500th match for the club.

“I need to get away from the whole ex-Celtic captain thing,” says Brown. “I've not been there for a long time now. I think it's over three years now. Me, I am the Ayr manager and I want to play the style and a way myself and Steven (Whittaker) believe we want to play. Hopefully you get to see that - if we get a touch of the ball against Celtic! It'd be lovely.

“But for us it's push up the league. We can't be dealing with fighting a relegation zone or being part of that relegation zone. Yes, it is going to be a lot tighter this season. I don't see there being a clear out and out team that's going to run away with the league.

“I might be 100 per cent wrong but at the other end as well, there's not going to be a clear relegation battle. So it might be very tight. It makes it entertaining, but we have to have belief and strength for the way we want to play and continue to do that.”

Brown will be helped by a more stable environment than was the case when he made his first dive into management at Fleetwood Town. A year ago yesterday, as Brown continued preparations for what he hoped would be his second full season in management following a successful debut campaign, he heard the news that the man who appointed him, Andy Pilley, had been jailed for 13 years for £15million fraud. Unsurprisingly, the serious nature of their benefactor's plight knocked the club off course. Brown departed in September having already made history by taking Fleetwood to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the first time.

“You don't expect the owner to go to jail for 13 years on your first job,” he reflects. He glances towards his current boss, David Smith. A respected figure in the building trade, he has been the driving force behind the construction of the new stand. “There's one good thing about this owner, he's not going to jail for 13 years!" says Brown.

“I think the second managerial job you go into is very important because you learn a lot from the mistakes and what you did in the first one and you have that little bit more background search,” he adds. “We went into Fleetwood and had fantastic facilities. They had everything you wanted as a League One club but behind the scenes it was a wee bit crazy, which we were okay with because we quite enjoyed that. Seeing the chairman going: ‘Right, we're going to sign him’. I'm like: ‘Here we go, this is brilliant’. Then the second season it's: ‘You've got no money to sign him’ and you’re like: ‘Oh no’.”

Not even Rodgers was able to warn Brown about this. The pair still talk regularly, most recently on holiday in Majorca earlier this summer. Does he court his advice? “All the time,” says Brown. “I have no shame over that whatsoever.”

From summer sun to Somerset. It will be down to serious business this evening, when Brown will have the chance to judge his team against the champions of Scotland, albeit in unfamiliar guise. Despite his connections, the Ayr manager has not been able to ascertain the make-up of the Celtic squad. He does know the likes of James Forrest and Callum McGregor, his two last “contacts” on the playing side, will be absent, although you never know with McGregor. As it stands, Brown won’t bring himself on.

“If Call was playing I would come on for five minutes!” he says. “See if I can get in his head! Or Jamesie's.”

The new stand currently bears no name other than ‘North’, although it does house an Ally MacLeod Suite.

Significant years have been daubed on the walls of the Ayr hub and there’s room for more. Promotion in 2025 would merit inclusion while surely solving the question of who to name the new part of the ground after. Scott Brown is intent on making history again.