Ayr United’s defeat by Airdrie United on Wednesday evening was definitely a low point in their season however, their Assistant Manager Scott MacKenzie will be out to lift the players ahead of the visit of IRN-BRU SFL Champions Inverness Caledonian Thistle. MacKenzie has been involved in senior football for over twenty years now and experience has taught him that the beautiful game can give you highs as well as lows.
MacKenzie has had the good fortune of winning three League Championship medals during his career and having a Scottish Cup Final appearance however, he has experienced promotion being denied because of stadium issues and losing a parent on the eve of the biggest game of his career as well as being on the winning and losing sides in Challenge Cup Finals.
The midfielder played for Glasgow side Knightswood Juveniles where he was spotted by Jim Jefferies, who took him to Falkirk and he was amongst a group of young players sent out to learn more about his trade at Musselburgh Juniors.
MacKenzie started his ten year playing career with the Bairns in the summer of 1990, winning a First Division winners’ badge in season 1993/94 and he enjoyed two seasons as a Premier Division player between then and the end of the 1995/96 season. The Bairns had enjoyed a Challenge Cup success in November, 1993, when they spent a season in the First Division however, MacKenzie missed out on the 3-0 triumph over St. Mirren at Fir Park.
Falkirk may have gone back down to the First Division for season 1996/97 however, it was to be a memorable campaign as they reached the Scottish Cup Final after seeing off Celtic 1-0 in a replay thanks to a goal from the late Paul McGrillen.
MacKenzie said, “I had been missing for a large part of that season after suffering from food poisoning however, I got my place back for the Quarter Final stage and kept it.”
Just before the Ibrox Final that Killie won 1-0 thanks to a goal from Paul Wright, MacKenzie’s mother passed away however, he took his place on the field alongside current Ayr United defensive stopper Kevin James.
A young member of the MacKenzie family now proudly watches a video of that game with 39-year-old MacKenzie explaining, “The Scottish Cup Final was a magnificent occasion and my nine-year-old boy Calum watches it now. For the towns of Kilmarnock and Falkirk to be represented at such a showpiece event was fabulous.
“It was obviously a time of mixed emotions for me but when I look back at the football side of things, apart from the result, my only regret was that the game was not at Hampden as that would have just topped things off.”
The following season, but still in the same year, MacKenzie did get his hands on a winners’ medal as Falkirk defeated Queen of the South in the Challenge Cup Final thanks to David Hagen’s solitary second half goal at Fir Park in November, 1997.
With Falkirk unable to step up to the SPL because of ground issues at their Brockville Stadium even if they had won the First Division, MacKenzie ended nearly a decade of service in Falkirk colours when he joined newly promoted St. Mirren in the summer of 2000.
MacKenzie explained the move, “Brockville was a great place to play football and the atmosphere was amazing when the crowd was tucked right in it. However, we could not go up to the SPL and play there so I went to St. Mirren to play at the highest level in Scotland again. They had just won the First Division and were on a high and at first. I struggled to get in the team. I got there and started playing regularly however, we were relegated after just one season.
“Tom Hendrie had taken me there and I was there for another year before I returned to Falkirk in August, 2002 under Ian McCall, ironically just before Tom left the Manager’s job at Love Street.”
It was during this second spell at the club that MacKenzie played alongside Ayr United boss Brian Reid and it was a successful time as the First Division Championship was won in his first season back however, disappointment was not far away.
MacKenzie said, “We won the League but the stadium was still not in place and we could not be promoted and it was a real blow. Ian McCall had left for Dundee United midway through the season but Owen Coyle and John Hughes took us over the finishing line as Joint Managers.
“The following season we probably had a bit of a hangover after that however, in 2004/05 we won the First Division Championship, finishing fifteen points clear of St. Mirren and were promoted because the new stadium was ready.
“I earned my third Championship medal then but Big Yogi wanted to freshen things up for the SPL and I went out on loan to Hamilton.”
The initial deal for six months was extended however, an ankle injury sustained in a game against Queen of the South saw MacKenzie miss most of the second half of the season. He remains philosophical over the knock saying, “I was very lucky in my career with injuries so I cannot complain about what happened then.”
MacKenzie enjoyed a sell out Testimonial Dinner as well as a Testimonial Match against Dunfermline Athletic during his second spell as a Bairn and he summed up his time at the club saying, “It was a fantastic time, I thought I maybe would not get a Testimonial because of the time with St. Mirren but the club gave me one.
“We were promoted a few times and of course, beating Celtic in the Scottish Cup Semi-Final was an amazing experience. You need a bit of luck in cup runs and we had our wee share that year but it was great to go all the way to the Final in 1997.”
The summer of 2006 saw MacKenzie without a club for the first time and he embarked on improving his fitness to get a deal on an eight week PFA Scotland course and that led to Ian McCall, who was now in charge at Queen of the South, asking MacKenzie to a trial match.
MacKenzie commented, “I played well in the trial game and was immediately offered a short term deal with Queens which I signed. I played up until the November but then dropped out of things. I stopped playing and I missed it as I loved the game.
“I earned my living from it for over 16 years but I wish it had been longer. I started coaching the Under-17s at Dumbarton and then this job came up.”
In the autumn of 2007, MacKenzie took a phone call that eventually transported him from working in youth football to working in the First Division when former Falkirk colleague Reid, recently installed as Manager at Ayr United, got in touch to see if he would be interested in the Assistant Manager’s job at Somerset Park.
MacKenzie said yes straight away without stopping to ask where the call had come from as he explained, “Brian and I were not really that close but he must have seen something in me that he liked.
“I am not sure if I was his first or twenty first choice to work with him and I don’t care either. I am glad he asked me and we are still very much a team over two years later.”
“Brian is the talker when the team are getting instructions but we bounce off each other well. He was a good professional and so was I and the two of us gave everything on the pitch and that is what we look for from our players.”
The first season was about consolidation in the Second Division with success being seen last year when promotion to the First Division was achieved via a Play-Off Final win over Airdrie United.
MacKenzie sums up the progress at the club by saying, “We have done reasonably well but not fantastically well and the two teams at the bottom just now are the ones that were expected to be there. Staying in this division would be a great achievement even though I do not think the standard is as good as it was five to ten years ago.
Ayr looked to be making good progress with results in February and March seeing optimism about finishing in at least eighth place rise however, April has not been so kind with MacKenzie saying, “We have been a bit up and down as this is a very hard League to progress in.
“We were on a good run and now it is Airdrie’s turn but we are desperate to stay in the First Division. Everyone had us or Airdrie down before a ball was kicked which is not surprising as we have the lowest budgets.”
MacKenzie is part time with the Honest Men, combining his work at games and training on a Monday and Wednesday evening with driving a Black Hackney taxi in Glasgow where he has been recognised for his efforts on the football pitch.
He said, “I am not a big one for telling stories about my football days but one day I was giving a lift to a Dunfermline fan, ironically to Hampden and he twigged who I was. He seemed to remember a goal I had scored against them better than I did.”
If the chance to work full-time in football came up, it would not be unsurprising if MacKenzie left the taxi business behind and took it but in the meantime, he is working hard in steering a course for safer ground for Ayr.
He also has the delicate task of getting son Calum to support his side explaining, “As I am always at games on a Saturday, Calum goes to watch Partick Thistle with his best pal and his dad.
“He has said that he is a Partick Thistle fan however, when we won 1-0 at Firhill last week, he did wear an Ayr strip so he now says he is a Partick Thistle fan that wants Ayr to do well and I can’t ask for much more than that.”
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