Kilmarnock

Kilmarnock go into this season back in the Scottish Premiership, the division they returned to after winning the Championship in 2021–22, in 2012 and again in 2016.

The club traces back to 5 January 1869, now holding 15,003 in yellow-and-blue Killie colours. The one league championship came in 1964–65, and it came down to goal difference on the final day, edging out Heart of Midlothian.

The Scottish Cup has been won three times — 1920 against Albion Rovers, a 2–0 defeat of Rangers in 1929, and a 1–0 win over Falkirk in 1997 under Bobby Williamson. There have also been three losing finals in that competition, in 1932, 1938 and 1960, and the League Cup has produced both the same pattern and the club's most recent trophy: beaten in finals in 1961, 1963 and 2007 before finally winning it in 2012, when Dieter Van Tornhout's goal saw off Celtic under manager Kenny Shiels.

Furthest the club has gone in Europe was a Fairs Cup semi-final in 1966–67, lost to Leeds United. Among those who wore the shirt longest, Alan Robertson made 585 league appearances, while Steven Naismith came through the academy and went on to play for Scotland and in the Premier League. Ayr United provide the local rivalry, contested as the Ayrshire derby.

All of it runs back to that January day in 1869, when the club that would become Kilmarnock first took shape.