CHRIS Burke scrolled down on his phone, paused for a second, then continued to swipe downward. If the veteran winger permitted himself a chuckle in response to a tweet from Gary Lineker promising to do Match of the Day wearing Killie socks in the event that the Rugby Park ‘do a Leicester City’ and win the Ladbrokes Premiership title this season then it lasted only a matter of seconds.

“I saw it quickly and just scrolled and looked at something else,” said Burke. “There’s that much you can scroll through, isn’t there! No, it’s nice that Gary Lineker is Tweeting about us. But listen people can talk about us as much as they want. We’re just going to take things game by game….”

If that mantra recurred frequently on a day where the mood at Rugby Park was eerily, cheerily, low key for a side leading the Scottish leagues in early December, the 35-year-old knows only too well the imperative to keep your feet on the ground when attempting to put a title charge together. It wasn’t until he and his Ibrox team-mates were stood around waiting in front of the away support at Easter Road that news came through of the clinching second Scott McDonald goal against Celtic at Motherwell to confirm his only Scottish top flight title to date, on the day in May 2005 which became known as ‘Helicopter Sunday’.

“The time I won the league with Rangers was fantastic,” said Burke. “It became known as Helicopter Sunday, didn’t it? So you never know in football when things are going to go your way.

“At this moment in time things are going our way at Kilmarnock,” the 35-year-old added. “But it’s a long, long season. We have only played 16 games and Celtic have games in hand. Who’s to say how those games are going to go? Everyone else can talk about the possibilities but we’ll just play it down – like I’ve been told!

“It’s obviously different [to be top of the league at Kilmarnock than at Rangers],” said Burke. “You just look at the resources Kilmarnock have got. It’s a great achievement so far. But we haven’t got anything yet – we haven’t won a cup or achieved anything as such yet. Maybe there’s a great feelgood factor for the fans, but as players we have a responsibility to maintain that because football can change ever so quickly.”

While Kilmarnock under Clarke are studious to a fault about keeping an even keel through both triumph and adversity, you shouldn’t underestimate the pride this group of players take in what they are achieving. Burke believes everyone should be grateful that Scottish football is no longer ‘a formality’.

“It’s great to have these games because it’s not as though it’s all a formality in Scottish football,” he said. “People aren’t just thinking ‘oh Celtic will win or Rangers win, or Aberdeen will finish second’. Everyone is fighting for places now which is great to see.

“Since I’ve come back, I’ve even noticed the progress with each team getting better and better and more competitive,” said Burke. “You can see that with a team down at the bottom capable of beating a team near the top. In years before I’ve looked at it when I’ve been away and that’s not really happened.”

While a trip to Celtic Park with a number of injury doubts will be a tall order for this Killie side, it is worth noting they have won two and drawn two of their last four meetings against the Parkhead side. So what has been the secret? “A big part of it has been down to the manager’s tactics and his preparation for the game ahead,” said Burke. “That’s not just showed against Celtic, it’s been there throughout the whole calendar year. He’s done it against Hearts, against Hibs and against Rangers. No matter who we play, he shows the opposition team the utmost respect. He asks us to deliver what he wants on the pitch and we try our best to do it.”