LET'S TAKE CUP AWAY FROM BIG 2

JIM JEFFERIES was the last manager of a club from outwith the Old Firm to win the Scottish Cup.

That was with Hearts in 1998 and Jeff suspects there will be a repeat this season with neither Gordon Strachan nor Alex McLeish getting their hands on the trophy.

The man who is now in charge of Kilmarnock has a personal ambition to lead a second club to a final appearance but he will need to beat his first love to achieve his aim.

Killie are up against Hearts at Tynecastle and a potential cup winner could come from the side who triumphs there.

Jefferies said: "I think the public at large, with the exception of the Celtic and Rangers supporters, are fed up with the Old Firm's domination of the Cup.

"It's gone to one or other of them for the last eight years and the Old Firm supporters are beginning to think that winning the Scottish Cup has become a formality.

"But the rest of the country thinks it would be great if somebody else won it for a change. We'd like to see them drawn together in the early stages so that one club was quickly removed from everybody else's path.

"What would be even better would be to see the pair of them knocked out in separate ties."

Jeff's problem tomorrow is that, apart from being sent to Ibrox or Celtic Park, Tynecastle is the hardest draw for any side with cup ambitions.

Killie have lost to Hearts twice in the league this season. But Jefferies is confident of making it third time lucky.

He said: "This is a tricky tie for Hearts as well. I've been telling my former Jambos, like Allan Johnston and Gary Wales, not to get caught up in the emotion of the occasion and concentrate on doing their best for Kilmarnock.

"Players who go back to their old clubs should have an extra edge about their game but they shouldn't try so hard that they make themselves incapable of doing anything to hurt the opposition.

"We have to remember the substantial reward of a place in Europe could be at stake. Dundee United and Dunfermline have made it to the UEFA Cup on the back of losing to Celtic in the last two finals."

A trophy or access to Europe would further justify Kilmarnock chairman Michael Johnston's decision to offer Jefferies a contract extension taking him up to 2009.

If the Killie boss decides to stay on that long, it will be a personal triumph for the man whose appointment wasn't greeted with unanimous approval by the Rugby Park fans who thought a Jambo from the east of Scotland wasn't the correct choice for their club.

Jefferies said: "You don't have to be adyed-in-the-wool Killie fan to manage the club. You simply have to do the job properly.

"My allegiance is to the people who pay my wages and I'm sure there have been other Kilmarnock managers who weren't born supporters.

"Some of the fans have been proved wrong about me and admitted it on fans' websites. Other supporters don't want to be proved wrong about me but that's not important as remembering that winning on Saturday is everything.

"The Cup is about luck. When Hearts won the trophy we had a very difficult semi-final with Falkirk. We won 3-1 but I wouldn't have begrudged Falkirk a replay.

"You can dominate a game and then find yourselves eliminated because somebody's hit a 25-yarder past your keeper, leaving you with a year to wait until you can take your revenge."

Contractual talks between Jefferies and Johnston will resume after the tie in Edinburgh.

The manager said: "The chairman has relied on me to see the club through a three-year spell of financial hardship and I take my contractual offer as a sign of his satisfaction with the job I've done.

"A satisfactory conclusion would clear up all the speculation that's surrounded me and offer me and Billy Brown, my assistant, stability and security."

Taken from the Daily Record