Old boys' reunion at Ibrox

Ibrox will stage something of an old boys' reunion when Kilmarnock visit today. Whether the home side will be particularly pleased to see the return of Ian Durrant, Ally McCoist and Gus MacPherson is quite another matter.

It is a measure of Kilmarnock's extraordinary resurgence under Bobby Williamson that they could take a point or three from Rangers without causing earth tremors.

In the two years since Williamson was first appointed caretaker-manager in the wake of Alex Totten's sacking, the Ayrshire side have won the Scottish Cup and finished fourth in the championship to qualify for Europe.

They now share the Premier League leadership with Rangers, having lost fewer matches than any other team and, on their last visit to Ibrox, helped Celtic to take the title by winning there 1-0.

Williamson's astute management has already caused talk of a repeat of 1965, when Kilmarnock travelled to Tynecastle on the last day of the season in need of a two-goal victory to secure the championship on goal average and beat Hearts 2-0.

At Rugby Park, it was the late James Moffat, the self-made millionaire owner of a chain of travel agencies, who provided the means by which to make the 18,000-seat stadium one of the most attractive in the country.

But it has been without question the work of Williamson and his lieutenants, Jim Clark and Gerry McCabe, which has taken the team to their present pre-eminence.

Williamson believes that a coating of former Rangers players offers the best protection against damage when jousting with the Glasgow giants, in the way that intakes of small doses of venom builds immunity to snakebite.

The experienced trio of the fullback MacPherson, midfielder Durrant and striker McCoist - the last two signed in the summer - give Williamson comfort. McCoist, however, has a chronic calf muscle condition which is likely to keep him on the bench.

Durrant has been, as Williamson predicted, a huge influence on the team and the manager's pursuit of the former international reveals a shrewdness and persistence that brings comparisons with the young Alex Ferguson.

Durrant sustained an appalling cruciate ligament injury in a match against Aberdeen in 1988 and his career has been less glowing than expected of a player who had been a prodigious teenager.

His appearances in Rangers' first team had been intermittent, although Williamson believed that this had more to do with the club's obsession with signing expensive foreigners than any diminishment of the player's talent or effectiveness.

"I had started pestering Walter Smith and Durrant at Ibrox from the first day I got the job," said Williamson. "Walter was reluctant because Ian had a testimonial year at Ibrox coming up and he thought a move might not be the best idea at the time.

"When I talked to the player last year, he told me he had a lot to think about, as there were a few interested clubs in England. For a long time after that, when he was out of the house at training, I would be on to his wife, telling her why a move to England would be a bad idea.

"Among other things, I told her that when you're down there, the visits from the in-laws had to last at least a few days, maybe even a week. If it's just a wee jaunt down the lovely Ayrshire coast, it's just like an ordinary visit, lasting a few hours and then back off home.

"I spent so long on the phone to them, even when the house was empty, that I filled up the recording time on his answering machine. I knew he would be worth it. He has brought the vision, the skill and the class we needed to take us to a higher plain."

Williamson, whose playing career as a winger embraced Clydebank, Rangers, West Bromwich, Rotherham and Kilmarnock, concedes that, although players can learn a certain amount from managers with whom they have worked the job is largely self-taught.

He was 35 when he was made caretaker manager - he had been on the coaching staff under Totten - and still that age when his probationary period ended a few months later with the acquisition of the Scottish Cup, Kilmarnock's first success in the tournament since 1929, in May 1997.

"It's all trial and error, and I've already made my share of mistakes," he said.

But with only two defeats in 17 league games, the Williamson way is clearly working.