THE end of Bullseye every week always seemed unnecessarily cruel. If the crestfallen couple weren’t feeling sufficient shame and disappointment having failing to score more than 101 with six darts in Bully’s Star Prize Gamble, they then had to endure host Jim Bowen rubbing it in further by showing them “what they could have won” had they not been so hopeless at flinging arrows at a board. It must have made for a frosty journey home when the realisation dawned on the disappointed duo that they wouldn’t be getting that new speedboat, family car or caravan after all.

Penny, then, for the thoughts of the Kilmarnock board and supporters when they see the start Graham Alexander has made as manager of Scunthorpe United. The former Scotland international was one of those in contention for the vacancy at Rugby Park in February following the departure of Gary Locke only for the board to decide to plump for Lee Clark instead. While Kilmarnock have been unable to extricate themselves from the Premiership relegation play-off spot and could yet go down this season, it has been an entirely different story at Glanford Park.

Alexander took over his former club in March with promotion out of League One looking highly unlikely. Making the play-offs wasn’t really on the agenda. Alexander, however, has overseen a dramatic upturn in fortunes. Scunthorpe have lost just once in his eight games in charge and have won their last five on the bounce. It has taken them to the point where only a marginally inferior goal difference is keeping them out of the sixth and final play-off spot. It will all come to a head this afternoon when the League One regular season reaches a dramatic denouement. If Scunthorpe can better Barnsley’s result – and do enough to prevent eighth-place Gillingham from leapfrogging the pair of them – then Alexander’s season will go into overtime.

“We got beaten by Bradford five games ago and we were 10 points short of the play-offs,” he recalled. “Realistically in our minds our chance had probably gone. But we just wanted to try to win as many games as we could to finish strongly and get in a good place ahead the new season. Fortunately for us we’ve won our last five games and clubs around us have dropped points. So it’s given us a sniff of the playoffs again.

“We’re excited about the prospect but we know we’ve got a real tough game against Sheffield United who are probably the biggest club in this division. There are two other teams trying to get that last play-off spot too but we just have to focus on ourselves. We can’t control anything away from Bramall Lane. If it goes for us, great, and if it doesn’t then hopefully we have given it our best shot. If we start looking elsewhere then it means our focus isn’t in the job in hand. We can’t go thinking about the goal difference either. Try win the game first and take it from there.”

To add to the intrigue, Barnsley’s final game is away to champions Wigan Athletic, managed by Gary Caldwell, Alexander’s former Scotland team-mate.

“Gary has had a fantastic season, they’ve done brilliantly at Wigan,” he said. “I’ve been there myself as a player when you’re already promoted but want to finish off in style in front of your own fans. I’m sure that will be the case with Wigan. I’ve spoken to Gary quite a few times over the season. I played against him earlier in the season and seen him up in Scotland once or twice. It’s his first job and he’s done brilliantly there. Winning any league is very difficult.”

Alexander started this season in charge of one League One club and will conclude it as manager of another. Disappointment still lingers at the way it all ended for him at Fleetwood Town back in September after three largely successful years.

“There was no resentment from me about how it ended but disappointment of course,” he said. “Leaving a club isn’t a nice experience to go through but when I look back I know I did a great job there. Apart from a couple of weeks towards the end I think everyone was happy with it. I’m a big boy, so I don’t cry about things in football. I just had to get myself ready for the next opportunity and that’s come at a fantastic club in Scunthorpe, my first club as a player. So it was great to get the call to come here and I couldn’t wait to get started. You never know what’s around the corner in this game.”

And what of the interest from Kilmarnock? “I was invited up to speak to them and took the chance to do that,” he said. “But I think they had already spoken to Lee and I got the impression they were already a long way down the road with that. I still went to see them and it was a good experience, meeting new people and the like. Lee got the job and good luck to him. He’s a good pro and I’ve known him a couple of years since I came into management. But I’m in a job now that means a lot to me so it all worked out well in the end.”