Killie flops saw the dark side of Clarke after Dons debacle
The players have been in the manager’s bad books all week
Kilmarnock midfielder rory mckenzie is closing in on his 200th senior appearance for the club. But he revealed that he — and more experienced players such as kris Boyd, kirk Broadfoot and Gordon Greer — were quivering in their boots when new manager Steve clarke laid into them earlier this week.
They hadn’t previously heard the softly-spoken 54-year-old raise his voice but the former West Brom and reading boss let them see a harsher side to his nature following what he described as a ‘disgraceful’ performance by them in last weekend’s 3-1 home defeat by aberdeen.
clarke rehabilitated himself by returning to England to spend time with his family this week but mckenzie admitted that he and his team-mates were left feeling like nervous teenagers when they reported back to training.
The manager forced them to relive the worst display of his brief reign and didn’t spare anyone’s blushes when it came to appointing blame.
‘it wasn’t nice, coming in on Wednesday morning, knowing that you had that in front of you,’ said mckenzie. ‘You want the place to be upbeat and for the manager to be happy because you’re doing well.
‘if that’s not the case, then it’s not a nice place to be and monday was like sitting outside the headmaster’s office. it’s real life and that’s what happens — it’s like being at school and being put on the naughty step.
‘We’ve been in the bad books all week but we have the chance to eradicate that from our memories when we play St Johnstone.’
mckenzie claimed that, having seen what clarke is like when he’s unhappy, he will be doing all he can to remain in his good books, starting with today’s meeting with at mcDiarmid Park.
‘That was the first time we’d seen him angry and he had the right to be,’ said the midfielder. ‘if you saw the game, you’ll know that it was nowhere near good enough from us.
‘We watched the parts of the game we didn’t do well in again, so that we can learn from that — there can’t be a repeat.
‘He focused on how badly we had started. We kicked off, won the first header but conceded the opening goal 40 seconds later from a free-kick just outside their penalty area.
‘it wasn’t anything drastic, just basic errors. But, if you lose two early goals, then it’s always hard to come back.
‘That was our downfall earlier in the season although, even when we went behind against celtic and rangers recently, we came back to get a point. However, we never really got back into it against aberdeen.
‘We knew that the gaffer wouldn’t accept that and now he’s proved that he’ll scrutinise everything. it had to be done and we’ve all benefited from it.’
clarke, meanwhile, has made it clear that, if there isn’t a marked improvement in the club’s league position between now and the turn of the year, he’s prepared to jettison some of his squad and replace them with new signings.
‘There’s not a lot of wiggle room in the budget as it stands at this time but we’ll see where we are at the end of the month,’ he said. ‘our next seven games will go a long way to deciding whether i need to bring in one player, two or three players, or six during the January transfer window. We could also pick up injuries during that period.’
The next four weeks will be stressful for all 12 Premiership managers (and caretakers) but clarke has already recharged his batteries in preparation.
‘i went down south to see my grandson, Finlay, who’ll be two next month,’ he added. ‘He always calms me down and i came back in a better frame of mind on Wednesday.
‘Seeing him was a reminder that life can be serious, but football really isn’t.
‘i didn’t take any positives from last Sunday’s game and i didn’t look for any. i concentrated on the negatives and we’ve tried to eradicate them.
‘For me, it’s too easy to say that you should always find a positive. it’s more important the players realise i know what the negatives were and that we addressed them.’