A healthy rivalry, but the fight for a place in final will be fierce

THE late sports writer Ian Archer had a theory – that football in Scotland was simply a continuation of the old clan wars. Where once Clan Donald had fought Clan Campbell, MacKenzie taken on MacLeod or whatever, since Victorian times it has been Kirkcaldy against Dunfermline, Airdrie against Hamilton, Newtongrange against Bonnyrigg, or, in the fiercest battle of all – Auchinleck against Cumnock.

The fight for land or cattle has become a squabble over bragging rights. When two villages, separated by a couple of fields and generations of mutual loathing send their 11 champions out to do battle – it matters – whether it’s two little village teams in a pub league, or, as this afternoon at Hampden, the two largest towns in one of Scotland’s major counties going head-to-head in a major national semi-final – to the locals, the outcome matters more than that of any other match.

Ayr v Kilmarnock used to be unique among Scotland’s sporting derbies. Alone amongst towns of similar size, located a short distance apart in the same county, Ayr and Kilmarnock did battle at the top level in football, cricket and rugby. Kilmarnock’s cricket and rugby teams have withered somewhat, whilst Ayr’s have prospered, in recent years – leaving Ayr United and Kilmarnock to uphold local honour and civic pride on the sports field, as they will this afternoon.

Ayrshire’s big two have always enjoyed a friendly rivalry, even on the terraces. Some years ago, whilst covering football in the county, I was known as “the only neutral in Ayrshire”, since my work rota took me to Somerset and Rugby Parks on alternate Saturdays. But I was not the only Ayrshireman making these trips; quite a few football fans in the county wore a black and white scarf one week, a blue and white one the next and nobody thought this strange.

Few are the players who have worn the colours of both halves of the Old Firm – go past Maurice Johnston, Gordon Marshall Jnr and Alfie Conn Jnr, and all but the true “anoraks” will struggle. Down in Ayrshire, Rugby Park icons such as Bertie Black, Jackie McInally, Willie Toner, Jim McSherry and Shug Burns have later gone on to be accepted warmly at Somerset Park. Whilst the likes of Alan McInally, Robert Connor, Robert Reilly, John Sludden and Jim Fleeting went “up the road” to a similar warm reception.

Indeed, this afternoon – Ayr’s Mark Roberts, the one-time “Golden Child” of Rugby Park will be a key man for United, but will not have to avoid Killie like the plague, should the First Division underdogs emerge triumphant from this League Cup semi-final.

Ayrshire has, like the rest of Scotland, suffered in the recent recession. Ayr High Street, once one of the most-prosperous shopping thoroughfares in the land, is today afflicted by boarded-up shops and ‘To Let’ signs, while Kilmarnock is, if anything in a worse economic state since even Johnnie Walker finally walked out of the town he had called home since 1820.

So, this afternoon is an opportunity for both towns to throw off the cloak of despondency, take a trip to Glasgow and show that, in a football sense, both are alive and kicking. It might not be cup final fever, but in both town centres, shops are decorated in the club colours and sporting signs exhorting their club to “Win it for the town lads”.

On paper, Killie will start as favourites, not least because they are now one of the SPL’s established sides. However, there is nothing Ayr United and their fans like more than to put the “Billy Big Times” from up the road in their place – and this is something they have made a habit of doing in recent years.

Surprisingly, given how well he has done on little cash these past few seasons, United boss Brian Reid’s name is never mentioned when an SPL managerial vacancy arises. He and his men will be keen to show what they can do – and they will not lack backing. Even though Kilmarnock have traditionally been the more successful side, the hard-core support for each side is remarkably similar in size and in fanaticisim.

The hero of the hour, whoever he is, will never be forgotten. Consider the case of Davie Paterson. Davie – perhaps better known as a cricketer with Ayr, was never a regular in the United team, but, back in 1965, in the midweek following Kilmarnock’s Scottish League-winning 2-0 victory over Hearts at Tynecastle, they welcomed United, then in the old Second Division, to Rugby Park for the Ayrshire Cup Final. United won 1-0, Paterson scored the goal and he is still getting drinks bought for him.

Goalkeeper Cammy Bell has revealed that, on match-days, since the semi-final draw was known, he and his team-mates have been subjected to: “Don’t dare lost to that lot” advice from Killie fans, as they have walked from the car park to the main door at Rugby Park. The same advice has been given to the United men by their fans.

Just another game – not here in Ayrshire it isn’t. Although it’s a pity it’s not the final.