For almost 10 years now, the promised land of the SPFL has eluded East Kilbride.
In amongst two title wins, there's been penalty heartache in a play-off final, a humbling semi-final defeat in the play-offs, three runners-up spots in the title race (possibly soon to be four) and a couple of disasters thrown in for good measure.
The quest to escape the Lowland League they entered in 2013/14, with grand designs on scaling the newly implemented pyramid system, has not gone according to plan.
Martin Lauchlin came within a whisker at Cowdenbeath in 2016/17, but the likes of Billy Stark, Stuart Malcolm, Billy Ogilvie, Stevie Aitken (granted, pandemic-affected in his first season) and Chris Aitken didn't get anywhere near as close.
East Kilbride have had to look on while rivals Edinburgh City, Cove Rangers and Kelty Hearts all passed them by on the way the SPFL, with Cove and Kelty going on to earn further promotions.
But, ironically, it is those very sides who give new East Kilbride boss Kevin Rutkiewicz the belief he can be the man to finally crack the Kilby curse.
The 41-year-old former Aberdeen and St Johnstone defender managed Stirling Albion for three years in SPFL League Two, before resigning in December following 'differences in opinion' with the board as the Binos then sat fourth in the table.
During that spell he encountered all the sides to gain promotion through the pyramid system.
And when asked what he can bring to the table to achieve success where others have failed, Rutkiewicz said: "One of the advantages I've got is I've seen good templates of what it takes to get up, by playing teams who came into the SPFL from the Highland and Lowland League, like Cove and Kelty.
"I've seen that up close and personal, how it is structured, the type of player they've gone for.
"Sometimes it is not all about ability. Sometimes you have got to look beyond that, like the physicality of players and things like that.
"So I feel some managers earlier on here didn't have that template to look at, so I feel I can utilise that.
"But, ultimately, I've just got to trust my ability.
"I can't reinvent the wheel and I have got my own ideas how I'm going to approach it.
"At the end of the day, when you cross that white line the responsibility falls to the players and they've got to show hunger, desire and enthusiasm.
"It's sad to say but a lot of players - like myself - only get that as you get older.
"When you are younger and in a privileged position, sometimes you take it for granted.
"All my efforts are going to go into this club and I hope that translates through to the players on the park.
"I want them to be able to express themselves and show the fans what they are all about.
"It's not going to be easy. There's going to be loads of other managers that will want the same success I do.
"I know how difficult it is going to be to navigate not only winning the league but negotiate those games in the play-offs to get up.
"But I'm delighted to be here and it's a good challenge.
"I know the remit here. Everyone knows what East Kilbride wants to achieve and what they've wanted to achieve for a long time."
Rutkiewicz was appointed last week after Chris Aitken was relieved of his duties, having taken over from brother Stephen in August on what proved to be a lengthy interim basis.
The ex-Binos boss becomes the ninth man (including interim appointments) to take the reins at the club and he explained his arrival at K-Park, which came hot on the heels of Aitken winning 6-0 against Gretna in the Lowland League Cup and with EK second in the Lowland League, was a bit of a "whirlwind."
"I got a call on Saturday night asking if I would be interested and then on Sunday we had long and protracted talks because I wanted to make sure it was the right opportunity for myself as well," Rutkiewicz revealed.
"I didn't want to just jump back in, but all the things we were saying were aligning with each other and it ended up happening quite quickly.
"It's been a bit of a whirlwind but I know I'm not coming into a team that's broken, that's for sure. There's good things put in place here and I just need to try and continue that.
"But, of course, I will bring in my own flavour to it as well."
Rutkiewicz and assistant Bill Orr, who quit as Stirling's head of performance analysis last week to take on the role, met with the East Kilbride players for the first time on Monday night and are preparing for their first game in charge on Saturday.
They host Sauchie in the quarter-finals of the South Challenge Cup as they bid to keep up Kilby's pursuit of silverware.
So what can we expect from the former St Johnstone skipper?
"What you can expect from me is passion, enthusiasm and hard work," he said.
"I want to play fast, dynamic football like every manager.
"I can't reinvent the wheel, but I want to introduce my take on things.
"Over the course of the last few months I've watched a few Lowland League games to keep the eye in.
"I've got my own ideas on what I think it will take to be successful here, but we are a long way from that at the moment.
"I just want to get a good look at these boys and get a number of them tied up because it's not broken here.
"I know there will be players here who are disappointed that Chris isn't here anymore, given the good job he'd done in the last wee while.
"But I'm hoping they give me a fair chance and I can express my ambitions for them and the club.
"Hopefully over the close season we can start to build and recruit, tie people down who are already here as well.
"What Bill and I have to do is just assess the squad in terms of what we want from a player and a team.
"We might think some are capable of that and some aren't.
"It is a clean slate as such, but I'm not pulling anyone in from Siberia.
"We've got a squad there that's hot, playing well and it's about continuing that as best I can.
"And that starts on Saturday."
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