Victory brings relief for McKenzie

IT finally got to the point where Rory McKenzie had had enough. With Kilmarnock bottom of the table and without a win in 10 games, he grabbed his phone and deleted any trace of his side’s lowly position.

Whether or not he will have allowed himself a glance at the league table after Killie’s impressive 4-1 rout of Motherwell is another matter, but it is now a far prettier picture for the Rugby Park men.

Tommy Wright’s team arrested a run of form which looked in danger of sending them down for the first time in nearly 30 years and after the game there was one overriding feeling for McKenzie.

“I thought I would be more excited, but it’s more relief than anything,” the 27-year-old said. “I’ve deleted the apps and I am just not looking at results. It’s brutal looking at it.

“It came on Sky Sports News during the week and you look at Kilmarnock and we are bottom of the table. It’s not nice.”

One man who has certainly helped to lift the mood in Ayrshire is Kyle Lafferty, the former Rangers striker who opened the scoring and had a say in all of Killie’s goals – the others being scored by McKenzie, Chris Burke and Mitch Pinnock.

“He has so much quality,” said McKenzie. “He’s added a bit of something. Nothing that can be repeated! I’ve met a few like him but he’s wild. He’s like a wee cheeky school kid. He gets away with things but he’s funny and brings everyone into it. At a time when we have been down he’s been a good person to have about and helped to lift the spirits.”

For Motherwell’s Stephen O’Donnell, the result, was a timely reminder they are not clear of the relegation mire just yet.

“Until it’s mathematically impossible for you to go down, I don’t think there’s one team who can claim that they’re safe because we’re all capable of taking points off each other,” the Scotland international said.

“We need to react positively to this and I’m sure we will. We can still finish this campaign well but that wasn’t the case here.”