ARDEER boss Sean Kenney says the club’s committee have Thistle’s best interests at heart after announcing plans to give supporters a much greater say in the running of the club.

With the 2024-25 season just a few days away, and with it Thistle’s 125th anniversary, fans are being offered a chance to join the new ‘125 Club’.

Supporters who become members of the new group will, in return for their £125 membership fee, get voting rights at the club’s AGM, with the chance to elect the members of the Thistle committee – who Kenney says will be “working for them”.

Speaking ahead of this Saturday’s Third Division opener at home to local rivals Dalry Thistle, Kenney told the Herald: “The committee will still be there but the members will get to vote who is on their committee, who will make any decisions.

“I don’t think there has been enough accountability at the club over the years. There have maybe been people who haven’t been at it for the best interests of the club.

“This way, everything stays above board and everything’s there to be seen – although we’re doing that now anyway.

“There is accountability for the committee, which hasn’t been the case before. It’s not anyone else’s club – it’s the fans club.

“That’s what we’re looking to do, and making sure everyone is going in the right direction.”

Kenney hasn’t been slow to thank Ardeer’s supporters for the part they’ve played in getting the club on an even keel over recent seasons – and he says he hopes they’ll have plenty of reasons to cheer when the new season gets under way.

“It takes a bit of time to build what we’re building,” he said, “and the fans have been a constant through that.

“They’ve been vocal one way or the other, but they’re well within their rights to do that.

“The good thing is that they are definitely not ‘yes men’. They’ll just tell you if they’re not happy with something, and I think that’s healthy.

“The bottom line is that I won’t be here forever, the committee that we’ve got won’t be here forever, but we want people who are going to be at their best the whole time they are.”

Kenney admits that he knows his job could be on the line if results on the pitch leave the fans unhappy – but says he’s confident that all the building blocks are in place to improve on last season, when Thistle finished in 11th place, just three points above the drop zone.

“We’ll aim to be the best we can be in the league,” he said, “and hopefully if we can’t get first place we’ll try and get second – and we’ll work through it that way.

“We’ve given ourselves a good base to build on in the last part of last season, but we want to go and do better.

“The squad looks good, the club’s in a good position, but we are only 20 per cent of the way to where we want to be in our plan.

“But we are satisfied with where we are and the group we have. We’ve got competition for every position.

“I guarantee on Saturday we are going to have good players on the bench."

And the manager says he’s delighted at having a selection headache ahead of the derby match as Thistle aim to extend the run that saw them win both matches against Dalry last season.

“As a manager that’s what you want,” he said.

“There’s no excuses. The players that I wanted have come in and the players I wanted to stay have stayed.

“We’ve put in a lot of work and now we are just choking for Saturday to come.”