The 2019–20 season was

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

's seventh season in the Premiership, and their 27th consecutive season in the top flight of

Scottish football Association football is one of the national sports of Scotland and the most popular sport in the country. There is a long tradition of "football" games in Orkney, Lewis and southern Scotland, especially the Scottish Borders, although many of ...

. Kilmarnock also competed in

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

competition for the first time in 18 years after finishing in third the previous season.

Overview

''Killie'' began the season managed by

Angelo Alessio Angelo Alessio (born 29 April 1965 in Capaccio) is an Italian football manager and former player. Playing career A central midfielder, Alessio started his professional career with then-Serie A club Avellino in 1984. He was then signed by Ita ...

who joined the club on 16 June 2019 after former manager

Steve Clarke Stephen Clarke (born 29 August 1963) is a Scottish professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Scotland national team. Clarke played for St Mirren, Chelsea and the Scotland national team, winning three majo ...

was signed by the

Scotland national football team The Scotland national football team represents Scotland in men's international Association football, football and is controlled by the Scottish Football Association. They compete in three major professional tournaments: the FIFA World Cup, UEFA ...

. On 28 June 2019, the club travelled to Spain for a pre-season training camp in

Marbella Marbella ( , , ) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the re ...

as they prepared for their upcoming

2019–20 UEFA Europa League The 2019–20 UEFA Europa League was the 49th season of Europe's secondary club association football, football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 11th season since it was renamed from the UEFA Cup to the UEFA Europa League. Sevilla FC, Sevill ...

qualifiers. The draw for the first qualifying round was held on 18 June 2019 with Kilmarnock drawn to face Welsh side

Connah's Quay Nomads Connah's Quay Nomads Football Club () is a Welsh professional association football, football club based in Connah's Quay, Flintshire. They play in the . The club was founded in 1946 as Connah's Quay Juniors and adopted the Connah's Quay Nomads ...

. The first leg was played in Wales on 11 July 2019 before Kilmarnock hosted the second leg on 18 July 2019. Connah's Quay's home ground,

Deeside Stadium Deeside Stadium () is a multi-sport stadium located in Connah's Quay, Deeside. It was the home stadium to Welsh Premier League side Connah's Quay Nomads until the 23/24 season and is the home of the Deeside Athletics Club. History The stad ...

did not meet UEFA requirements so the game was instead played at Rhyl's home ground Belle Vue. Attempts had been made to play the game at Wrexham's

Racecourse Ground The Racecourse Ground (), is a football stadium in Wrexham, Wales. It is the home of Wrexham A.F.C., Wrexham AFC. It is the largest stadium in North Wales and the List of football stadiums in Wales, fifth-largest in Wales. It is the world's o ...

in order to facilitate the expected number of supporters but the pitch works meant that wasn't possible. After a 2–1 comeback win in Wales, Kilmarnock lost 2–0 at

Rugby Park Rugby Park, also known as The BBSP Stadium Rugby Park for sponsorship reasons, is a association football, football stadium which is the home of Scottish Premiership club Kilmarnock F.C. and is situated in the Scotland, Scottish town of Kilmarnoc ...

and were knocked out by the Welsh part-timers 3–2 on aggregate. Kilmarnock played

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

at home in their first league fixture on Sunday 4 August 2019. The fixture was a repeat of the last match of the previous season which Kilmarnock won 2–1. As a result of their European qualification, Kilmarnock received a bye to the League Cup

second round The second (symbol: s) is a unit of time derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes, and finally to 60 seconds each (24 × 60 × 60 = 86400). The current and formal definition in the International System of Un ...

. The draw was made on 28 July 2019 and Kilmarnock were drawn to play Premiership rivals

Hamilton Academical Hamilton Academical Football Club, often known as Hamilton Accies, or The Accies, is a Scottish football club from Hamilton, South Lanarkshire, who currently compete in . They were established in 1874 from the school football team at Hamilto ...

on 17 August 2019. They lost to Hibernian on penalties in the following round. In December 2019, Alex Dyer was made caretaker manager of Kilmarnock after Alessio was sacked. After three games in caretaker charge, Dyer was appointed Kilmarnock manager to the end of the 2019–20 season. In January 2020, Kilmarnock entered the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,fourth round Fourth or the fourth may refer to: * the ordinal form of the number 4 * ''Fourth'' (album), by Soft Machine, 1971 * Fourth (angle), an ancient astronomical subdivision * Fourth (music), a musical interval * ''The Fourth'', a 1972 Soviet drama ...

where they defeated Queen's Park 6–0. In the fifth round, they lost 4–3 after extra time in a replay against

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. On 13 March 2020 – with Kilmarnock eight in the table after a 1–0 loss to

– all SPFL leagues were indefinitely suspended due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. In June 2020, manager Alex Dyer signed a permanent two-year contract with Kilmarnock.

Overview

Match results

Pre-season and friendlies

Premiership

Scottish Cup

League Cup

Europa League

Squad statistics

Club statistics

Competition Overview

League table

Player transfers

Transfers in

Transfers out

Notes

References