kilmarnock hack hearts off top spot

Congratulations to Jim Jefferies once again. For the second season in a row he has steered his club to the most prestigious of all Scottish football’s awards, in 2009 with Kilmarnock and last season taking over from Saba Laszlo at Hearts in January to restore to the Gorgie Gargoyles the accolade of Scotland’s Dirtiest Bastards, a title they have now claimed in three of the last four seasons.

The coveted kings of Clogging Cup can retake its place in the Tynecastle trophy cabinet alongside the East of Scotland Shield, the Gorgie District Petting Zoo Commemorative Gonk and a Kaunas pennant sent in by one of the Chairman’s pen-pals from Lithuania.

Pride of place on the open-topped stretcher cart parade down Princes Street goes to Eggert Jonsson with a repectable 8 yellows and two reds, although he will doubtless acknowledge the support offered to him by his team mates, most notably Ian Black and Jesus Santana (an exclamation that was uttered by many a winger as they hit the deck last season).

Not since the glory days of the infamous Motherwell five-in-a-row side have we been treated to such consistent clogging. Indeed, had it not been for a Jefferies-inspired Kilmarnock in 2009 and a Livingston side who were determined not to go down at the end of the 2005-06 season without a fight (literally) the Jammed Farts would be going for an unprecedented seventh title in a row this season. With Ian Black in their team who would bet against them?

Mark McGhee, perhaps, whose Aberdeen side clawed their way into a respectable runners-up spot, only four yellow cards short of hacking Hearts off the top. The only team to record a double figure for red cards in 2009-10, they have lost human threshing machine Maurice Ross but already this season they are out in front on the card count with nine yellows, Andrew Considine and Paul Hartley the early front-runners for the individual title.

Steadily climbing up the table in the last couple of years are Rangers. Watch out for them pushing for the title in 2011 (and kicking for it as well). Only the MIBs stand in their way.

ROBBIE FOULER