Former Rangers star Kirk Broadfoot has been branded 'disrespectful' by East Kilbride manager Mick Kennedy after the defender claimed there was a 'lack of professionalism' at Lowland League side Open Goal Broomhill last season.
Broomhill - managed last season by Open Goal podcast host and ex-midfielder Si Ferry, who is now Kennedy's assistant at East Kilbride - have come in for criticism from Broadfoot over claims players would 'drink on the bus' after matches and some people at the club took treated their roles 'like a hobby rather than a job.'
Having now joined Championship side Morton, ex-Kilmarnock and Inverness man Broadfoot didn't hold back in his assessment of part-time football last term.
And that has led to Kennedy, who took the reins at Lowland League club Kilby this summer, defending the fifth tier.
In a reply to the story on social media, he tweeted: "Disrespectful to say the level unprofessional, there are many staff and players who take what they do extremely seriously.
"I’m sure they don’t see it as a hobby, you’d think if the the level was that unprofessional he would have stood out more when playing."
In an interview with The Greenock Telegraph, Broadfoot said: "I actually found it more difficult going part-time than I did coming back into a full-time environment.
“When you’re part-time, you’re spending a lot of time waiting and sitting about.
"There’s a lot of dead time that you find yourself needing to fill.
“That’s why I kept on training myself every morning. It wasn’t just for a physical aspect, it also made me feel better mentally that way.
“I’m not going to lie, I found the whole Open Goal project tougher than I thought.
“I found the lack of professionalism really tough, things like drinking on the bus after games and things like that, that’s not for me.
“I just found that people were doing it as a hobby, not as a job and that was difficult especially after working in the way I have for so many years in a professional set-up.
“Boys were just messing about to be honest, I didn’t like it to be honest.
"But at the end of the day I can understand it, they’ve worked all week and like for many people football is their release.
“That just wasn’t for me, I like the seriousness behind it, I feel like I thrive and become a better player when you need to win football matches and I hope I can do my bit here to help Morton do that.”
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