KILWINNING Sports Club has proven its legendary status in the community after scooping a national award.

The club has been awarded the coveted Legacy Award by the Scottish Football Association, recognising its achievements in transforming grassroots football.

Members of the club’s board, Jim McCubbin, Jim Hodge, Michael Morgan, Willie Boyd and John McIntyre, all attended the awards bash in the Park Hotel in Kilmarnock on Saturday evening.

The team were first treated to entertainment from John Gahagan before attending the Kilmarnock vs Partick Thistle game at the adjacent Rugby Park.

Speaking of the award win, club treasurer Jim Hodge said: “The SFA Legacy Award is the highest community award that they give out so it is a huge honour to win it and be recognised in this way.” The award comes under the SFA’s Quality Mark Accreditation Scheme and recognises proactive football teams and clubs who work hard in their local communities to increase football participation.

Every year the South West Region of the Scottish FA host an awards ceremony to reward the great work that happens in football clubs across their region.

The scheme now has four levels of accreditation, Standard, Development, Community and the recently introduced Legacy Level.

Individual teams work towards the standard level and as their numbers and structure increases so does the level of accreditation.

Chairman of Kilwinning Sports Club, Jim McCubbin added: “The various awards are their way of saying thanks to the volunteers within each organisation for the continued passion, commitment and energy they put into grassroots football.

“Kilwinning Community Sports Club was one of the first clubs in Scotland to achieve the Community Level and following the recent developments at KCSC, a review and update of the Quality Mark criteria and a recent presentation to the Regional Committee the Sports Club, we were awarded the new Legacy Level of the Quality Mark Scheme.”