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Billy Bowie has been taken way beyond the end of his tether.

He’s had enough of the sectarian chanting that so stung the sensibilities of his own miracle working manager earlier this season during an away day at Ibrox.

Enough of the coin throwing yobs who put the health and safety of his club captain in harm’s way during the last visit from Celtic.

And enough of the epidemic of appallingly bad behaviour inside football grounds up and down the land which appears to be dragging our national game back towards the dark ages.

So yesterday the Kilmarnock chairman chose to do something about it.

(Image: SNS Group)

When Bowie announced that Rangers customary ticket allocation will be sliced in half to just 4,000 for the final game of the current SPFL season at Rugby Park, he applied some sugar coating by adding that this particular day is to be a celebration of the club’s 150th year.

But the truth is, this was also a glimpse into the vision Bowie has for Kilmarnock’s future.

A modern, welcoming, all inclusive club which bends over backwards to create the kind of environment which parents would wish to usher their children into.

Not one which has to ask its own players to coax an eight year-old child into coming back to Rugby Park because of the trauma caused by the last visitation from Glasgow, when Celtic fans crossed all manner of lines as their side effectively tied up this season’s title.

Kris Boyd had to make that phone-call the other day which is what Bowie was getting at yesterday in his statement when he said: “Kilmarnock FC is a family club and we want to make sure Rugby Park is an enjoyable and safe environment for people to enjoy watching football.”

(Image: SNS Group)

Later, in an exclusive interview with Record Sport, Bowie explained: “We have spoken to our own supporters about it and there is a feeling that they are intimidated when the Old Firm sides come to Rugby Park.

“So we have decided what we want to do is create an environment for them on match days where they feel absolutely safe. We want them to feel comfortable bringing their families to any Kilmarnock game and that has not always been the case.

“After the last game against one of the Old Firm, we realised this was something that we had to discuss. We have had a lot of talks about it and this is the way we have decided to handle things going forward.

“We are creating a fan zone behind the Moffat Stand with a nine aside football pitch and we want Kilmarnock supporters and their families to come along and enjoy the whole matchday experience.

“We won’t be able to do that If we are giving that stand away to visiting supporters. So this is the decision we have made. We want to celebrate what our own club has achieved on the last day of the season but this is the model we plan to use going forward.”

(Image: SNS)

There’s much to be admired in what Bowie and Kilmarnock are doing here, at a time when Scottish football feels very much like it’s already gone to the dogs.

And the accusatory finger should not be jabbed only in the direction of Glasgow and its old divide either.

This has been a season of jaw slackening idiocy which has seen a linesman’s head cut open by a coin, Celtic winger Scott Sinclair narrowly missed by a flying bottle of Buckfast, Rangers captain James Tavernier confronted by one fan at Easter Road while dodging a lighter and a Scotch pie at Fir Park, pyrotechnics being thrown like confetti and even a coconut launched onto the field of play during the Edinburgh derby.

This juggernaut of loutish behaviour is hurtling out of control then yesterday Kilmarnock chose to slam on the brakes

Bowie went on: “We want people to come back to football for all the right reasons.

“Obviously, as directors, we sit in the middle of the main stand on match days so we do not have the same experience as those supporters who sit closer to the away fans. We don’t really come into contact with them before or after the game either.

“But what we want to do is make Kilmarnock’s supporters feel as if this is their stadium.

“There are even issues about crowd segregation before and after games which are made much more easy to control by doing things this way.”

Rangers responded yesterday with a thinly veiled threat of refusing tickets for future trips down the M77, perhaps in more testing financial times for Kilmarnock who, in the not so distant past, have been more than happy to roll out the carpet for these bumper visiting crowds.

But Bowie insists not only are these changed days for his club - which is closing in on the possibility of European football and a third placed finish in the top flight - but that they are here to stay.

When told of the statement from Ibrox yesterday and of the warning that such a stand off could cost Kilmarnock somewhere of the region of a quarter of a million pounds per season, Bowie said: “That doesn’t really bother us to be honest as this is is something we want to do for our own fans. If we can attract more Kilmarnock fans to Rugby Park then we will offset any loss that we stand to make from matches against the Old Firm teams.

“Think about it. We have 18 home games over the course of the season. If we can add another 1,000 Kilmarnock fans to our average home crowds then that will more than cover the cost of losing 16,000 Old Firm fans over the season.

“You have to remember that Kilmarnock is a well run, self sustainable club with no debt. We are not in the position where we need to rely on big crowds from other clubs. We are doing things properly here and we want to place the emphasis on looking after our own fans and making Kilmarnock a place where families want to come and feel safe.”