As Stuart Malcolm hoisted the Lowland League trophy aloft, there was a part of him that felt relieved.
Relieved because it was a moment that six months ago he feared might never happen.
Just two games into his caretaker spell as East Kilbride manager, following the resignation of Brian Kerr, Kilby crashed to a 3-1 defeat away to Civil Service Strollers.
After starting so positively with a 3-1 win over Spartans in the Scottish Cup a week earlier, their first league defeat of the season couldn’t have come at a worse time for the former Arbroath and Forfar defender.
The shock result in October was Kilby’s worst of the season – but a defining moment in their campaign.
While it may seem harsh to focus on a defeat in an otherwise sensational season, there is no doubt in Malcolm’s mind about its importance in where Kilby now stand – as champions heading into the SPFL play-offs.
“I took the defeat hard because we should have won the game,” admitted the 39-year-old Kilby boss, who was registered as a player/coach at the start of the season.
“And the disappointment also comes because I didn’t know if I was going to get to the next game after that.
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“I know you have to learn quickly or you are out the door.
“It affected me because I know the group of players we have and I knew we shouldn’t have lost that game. We started very well and it was individual errors that cost us. I’m a bit like a bear with a sore head when I lose.
“Even as a player or if I didn’t play well, I always have standards and strive to be the best I can be.
“Every club I played for I was a captain and I led a team on the pitch.
“So I feel a real personal responsibility when things don’t go right.
“But when we got over the line [against Spartans] it was a case of relief that then turned to joy, winning the league with three games to go.
“It was a massive achievement and we were relentless over the games after Civil Service.”
In the following game, EK weren’t at their best again but ground out a 2-0 win over East Stirling at K-Park.
The real test of character came in their next away game.
With Malcolm starting to look over his shoulder and the players wondering if someone else was on the verge of coming in, Kilby faced a real banana skin away to Gretna.
They came through it 2-0 and Malcolm said: “After the Civil Service game it was all about belief.
“Getting the players to enjoy the games, work as hard as possible and trust in themselves and the shape we were asking them to play.
“That Gretna game gave them massive belief.
“It was a horrible day on a bobbly pitch, but it was a day for rolling the sleeves up and winning a different way to the nice, pretty football we usually play.
“We were resilient, defensively sound and ground out the result.
“We won 14 games in a row by the end of the run and there were other times where we had to grind out results to get us over the line.
“That all stemmed from their reaction to that [Strollers] game.”
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By Christmas EK had edged four points clear of BSC Glasgow with a game in hand, yet uncertainty still surrounded Malcolm’s position.
At the turn of the year their interim boss had taken charge of 10 games, winning nine and securing a spot in the fourth round of the Scottish Cup.
But it still wasn’t enough for him to get the job permanently at that stage.
Malcolm said: “I was asked to take the team and I was happy to do that.
“Once I got a real taste for it, I knew I’d like to take the team forward.
“They asked me to do three games, then another four and I was quite comfortable with the situation.
“I was constantly getting asked about my position, but the people around the club were just telling me to keep doing what I was doing.
“I didn’t get myself stressed about it.”
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Malcolm’s attention to detail and drive for perfection was rubbing off on the players and with Kilby on a run of 11 straight wins in the league, the appointment was finally made permanent in February.
And he hailed his players for earning him the job.
“I’m a big believer in that if you train hard, you play hard – and that’s what we’ve carried through the whole season,” he said.
“I can be very intense at times, trying to drive standards.
“As a group of players they’ve been excellent and they are the reason we are where we are.”
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Kilby did need two bites at the cherry to clinch the title, drawing a blank in a 0-0 draw with Cumbernauld Colts at K-Park before Sean Winter netted a late winner three days later to beat Spartans 2-1 and secure the trophy.
“I was always confident we’d get over the line,” Malcolm insisted.
“The way we play, the movement we’ve got in the team, we were always going to create chances, even in the tight games.
“It’s been really enjoyable.
“We are looking forward to the play-offs now.
“Hopefully we get a big crowd behind us and we can achieve something special.”
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