Former Aberdeen and St Johnstone star gives his East Kilbride management vision and discusses the one advantage he has over previous Kilby gaffers

For almost 10 years now, the promised land of the SPFL has eluded East Kilbride.

In amongst two title wins, there's been penalty heartache in a play-off final, a humbling semi-final defeat in the play-offs, three runners-up spots in the title race (possibly soon to be four) and a couple of disasters thrown in for good measure.

The quest to escape the Lowland League they entered in 2013/14, with grand designs on scaling the newly implemented pyramid system, has not gone according to plan.

Martin Lauchlin came within a whisker at Cowdenbeath in 2016/17, but the likes of Billy Stark, Stuart Malcolm, Billy Ogilvie, Stevie Aitken (granted, pandemic-affected in his first season) and Chris Aitken didn't get anywhere near as close.

East Kilbride have had to look on while rivals Edinburgh City, Cove Rangers and Kelty Hearts all passed them by on the way the SPFL, with Cove and Kelty going on to earn further promotions.

But, ironically, it is those very sides who give new East Kilbride boss Kevin Rutkiewicz the belief he can be the man to finally crack the Kilby curse.

The 41-year-old former Aberdeen and St Johnstone defender managed Stirling Albion for three years in SPFL League Two, before resigning in December following 'differences in opinion' with the board as the Binos then sat fourth in the table.

During that spell he encountered all the sides to gain promotion through the pyramid system.

And when asked what he can bring to the table to achieve success where others have failed, Rutkiewicz said: "One of the advantages I've got is I've seen good templates of what it takes to get up, by playing teams who came into the SPFL from the Highland and Lowland League, like Cove and Kelty.

"I've seen that up close and personal, how it