Michael Kennedy is expecting two tough challenges as Darvel gear-up for a potentially historic week in East Ayrshire.
The Irvine Valley side’s play-offs start as they head to Kirkcudbright tonight to take on South of Scotland League winners St Cuthbert Wanderers before hosting East of Scotland League winners Tranent on Saturday.
Tranent defeated St Cuthbert’s 7-0 on Sunday, so a win for Darvel against the SoSL side with set up a winner-take-all clash with the East Lothian side this weekend.
The successful side in the mini-league will replace Vale of Leithen in the Lowland League.
And ‘Vale boss Kennedy says he won’t be taking any of the clashes lightly.
Speaking to Doon the Brae TV he said: “St Cuthbert’s have had a really good season, we’ve managed to get them watched a few times and it will definitely be a challenge.
“When you take everything into account, you’re driving two hours down there on a Wednesday night it’s not ideal.
“We will be fully prepared for the challenge that lies ahead, but I think it will be a really difficult task.
“I know people think because we’ve won the West of Scotland League this will be easy, but it genuinely won’t be, it’ll be a real challenge getting through these two play-off games.
“And I know Tranent really well, I am mates with the manager and we played them pre-season.
“They’ve done very well, they looked like they were out of it at one point but they did incredibly well to turn it round.”
Kennedy has made it clear before that he has a five-year plan in which he hopes to be an SPFL side.
Heading into the Lowland League on year four of his time at Darvel would leave that right on track, despite missing a year due to Covid.
He said: “You’ve always got internal expectations in terms of where you want to be.
“Coming from amateurs I had no real knowledge about this level of football, apart from being aware of who the big clubs were, I knew that.
“Coming in that first season in the Championship was always going to be tough, you didn’t quite have the stellar names in the league you knew all about.
“But I surrounded myself with the right people, credit has to go to the likes of Stewart Ralston and Kevin MacDonald who had a great knowledge of this level of football.
“Their guidance and stewardship was an integral part of the success in that first year, I don’t think anyone can forget that.
“We did remarkably well that first year, then the second year was cut short due to covid, then it was getting set for the Premiership at the start of year three.
“I knew we’d compete and do well, but whether we’d go on and win the league at the first time of asking was another thing, there’s so much that comes into it.
“But I knew deep down that we’d got the recruitment right and we could have a real go at it, I expected to win the league but I’m sure a few other teams did too.”
He added: “In terms of our long term plan, this is where we expected to be, or hoped to be.
“When I came in I wanted to be the top team in the Juniors within three years, in terms of winning the top league.
“But in a sense, we’ve only won one league title at this level, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
“I don’t think we’ve arrived, I don’t think we can be compared to the likes of Auchinleck or Pollok for example, that takes success over a number of years.
“It’s all part of the plan, part of the strategy, we need to keep pushing on and set ourselves targets constantly.
“We need to set standards, drive the club forwards, we certainly can’t be left standing still.”
Kennedy knows how much promotion would mean to the Darvel fans, and he’s hoping to see Recreation Park rocking on Saturday.
He said: “My message to the fans ahead of the play-offs is just get behind us, stand side by side with us through it.
“The day we won the league was just such an incredible day for the village, I managed to speak to fans and they told me how much it meant to everyone.
“For small places like Darvel you need something to bring the community together, it’s just so important to so many people.”
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