March 14, 2014 was meant to be the day things changed for Kilmarnock FC.

Ahead of a 3-0 home loss to Celtic, the Ayrshire side announced a major, wide-ranging deal had been struck with Bank of Scotland, which saw £9.4m of debt cleared from the club’s books.

With new investors joining the board and the team avoiding relegation from the Premiership, fans of Scotland’s oldest professional club were looking forward to a new dawn.

Few things focus the mind of a football fan than a relegation battle but ahead of this weekend’s crunch clash with Hamilton, Kilmarnock supporters have been left equally worried by their club’s performances off the field.

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Two years on from the debt clearance, Kilmarnock last week announced losses of £724,406, up from £453,272, for 2014/15. It’s a financial performance departing chairman Jim Mann described as “unsustainable in the long term” and requiring “urgent action”.

Financial prudence was said to be at the heart of the new “Killie Way” but fast forward to now and any change seems tantamount to rearranging deckchairs on the Titanic. False hopes and broken promises are all that have been delivered.

Low attendances and poor season ticket sales, a clear indicator of the strong disconnect between the club’s supporters and the board, are partly to blame for the financial figures. Analysis from STV’s stats man Thom Watt showed as a percentage no top flight Scottish side has lost a greater proportion of their support than Kilmarnock over the past 20 years. Scraping for survival in each of the last three seasons has affected prize money.

Throughout Kilmarnock’s turbulent recent history sits Michael Johnston, a divisive figure among many of the club’s support. While he relinquished the position of chairman after 10 years at the helm and reduced his shareholding from 87% to under 50%, Johnston’s presence and influence appears as strong as ever from the role of company secretary.

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Accused of alienating supporters and local businesses, the solicitor faced repeated calls to leave the club at a heated AGM. Sandy Armour, editor of the Killie Hippo fanzine, says Johnston’s continued presence is hurting the club: “The club has been on a downward spiral since he walked in the door.

“He’s made some ridiculous decisions, which have chased fans and investors away. It’s immeasurable the amount of damage he’s done to the club.”

Johnston rejects those accusations and says he does not have undue influence at Kilmarnock. He told STV: “During my time as chairman Kilmarnock retained their Premiership status, won the League Cup, cleared over £13m of debt and secured the two biggest sponsorship deals in the club’s history.”

A largely silent figure among continued discontent is Billy Bowie, owner of a local waste management firm, who was assigned £6.4m of the club’s debt in return for shares and is seen as Johnston’s key ally on the board. Bowie’s Special Projects firm advanced more than £700,000 to the club last season and are owed over £740,000 up to the end of May 2015. That figure has only increased.

Meanwhile J & A Boyd solicitors, of which Johnston is principal, charged Kilmarnock £60,000 for services over the course of the year. The accounts also showed a previous balance of £45,000 for the year prior which remained outstanding.

Armour sees Bowie as a pivotal figure, telling STV: “He needs to take action, get on board with the right people who are going to come in and help the club go forward and remove Johnston from the club.

“In terms of moving forward the auditors’ report mentioned that it needs fresh investment into the club just to keep it as a going concern. There’s investors out there willing to put money in to the club so I think the time is now for Billy Bowie to do the right thing and go and speak to the people willing to put money in.”

Kilmarnock company secretary Michael Johnston has come under fresh pressure to leave the club. SNS

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Income from the Park Hotel situated beside Rugby Park, a business which posted a gross profit of just under £890,000, and a net profit of over £17,000 in the first year since it became a separate entity, is now not available to the football club. It was sold for £2.4m to a new company set up by Bowie and Johnston as part of the Bank of Scotland transaction.

In addition to the loss of income from the stadium’s Sports Bar, the club’s overall turnover fell from £4,597,582 to £3,451,379. And yet the club continues to make use of the Park Hotel paying £352,000 according to the hotel company’s accounts. Kilmarnock FC’s accounts gave a figure of £490,000, a figure which was inclusive of VAT and adjustments for the previous year.

While supporters can be forgiven for failing to delve into the minutiae of club finances then the dysfunction that has surrounded Kilmarnock has been harder to ignore. Once a beacon of managerial stability under Bobby Williamson and Jim Jefferies between 1997 and 2010, Lee Clark is Killie’s fifth manager in six seasons with only one top six finish achieved during this period.

Instability in the dugout has led to a lack of focus in the football department with large squad turnover a summer tradition and has seen Killie fail to get the best out of their productive youth academy. Matthew Kennedy’s move to Everton in 2012 remains the last serious fee they have received for a player with Robbie Muirhead departing with six months to go on his deal while only late intervention ensuring the talented Greg Kiltie remained just weeks before his contract expired.

Former Kilmarnock captain Manuel Pascali with Michael Johnston SNS Group

Players and coaching staff are not immune to the negative atmosphere surrounding Rugby Park with former captain Manuel Pascali laying the blame for a long-running bonus dispute between the club and squad during 2014-15 at Johnston’s door.

Kilmarnock Standard sports editor David Wren doesn’t see a quick fix in sight. He said: “Don’t be surprised if the shareholders call an EGM in the near future in a bid to cast a vote of no confidence in Michael Johnston.

“But, even then, that’s not guaranteed to oust the current company secretary.

“All of the off-the-field stuff constantly takes away from what’s happening on the pitch.

“And with arguably the biggest games the club have faced in many years coming up, it’s a distraction they could do without.”

Behind the scenes things aren’t much better. For a period this term the club were left without any recognised media staff due to departures in the early part of 2016 with outside agencies being called in to organise the introduction of new boss Clark to the press in February. The official announcement of Clark’s appointment wasn’t published on the club’s website or social media channels until hours after he had performed his first interviews with the written and broadcast media.

Those issues feel small in comparison to the fight the club faces to extend their 24-season stay in Scotland’s top flight. Defeat at Inverness CT leaves Killie seven points behind Hamilton with just 12 to play for, anything other than a victory at New Douglas Park and the play-offs await.

Clark said: “We’d be foolish to under-estimate and under state the situation in any way. If we draw mathematically we can still do something but

it would prove very, very difficult.”

The situation and the turmoil which would accompany life in the Championship is not lost on Killie’s new boss but he insists his side won’t go down.

On finances, Clark added: I’ve spoken to the board and I was well aware of the financial situation before it was announced in the public domain.

“I spoke with many of the board members who want to improve those figures. The soundings that were given to me is that it is not a concern. We keep the club in the league and push on with our plans for the summer, which I had already agreed with them prior to taking the job. So we’re looking to do that.”