Kil lie cruise to win over Dark Blues
KILMARNOCK 2 McKenzie (22), Couilibaly (70) DUNDEE 0
KILMARNOCK manager Lee Clark hailed his players after this convincing victory over Dundee hoisted them into the top six.
The Ayrshire club, whose fans protested against major shareholder Michael Johnston during the 18th and 69th minutes here, are still only three points off the bottom of the table but Clark’s glass was half full last night.
“No disrespect to Dundee – it could have been an even bigger margin – but we’re not getting carried away,” he said.
“We’re in the top six but we have a tough game at Aberdeen on Tuesday and we know the league is going to swing around every weekend because it’s so tight.
“Take out Celtic and a few of the teams chasing them then every other side will need to be right on their games. Every manager is saying this month is huge.”
Fans who headed to Rugby Park looking for a winter warmer yesterday wouldn’t have been disappointed by the fare on offer.
Crunching tackles, dodgy refereeing decisions, protests against an unpopular owner and some decent football helped take minds off the falling temperature.
Kostadin Gadzhalov wasted an early chance for the visitors after being teed up by Marcus Haber and, at the other end, Nathan Tyson headed well wide from a good position.
There was an element of luck about Killie’s opener, with Jordan Jones’ shot going nowhere until it was deflected into the path of Rory McKenzie, whose finish flew in via the inside of Scott Bain’s right-hand post.
Danny Williams at least forced a save from Jamie MacDonald but Killie were worth their half-time lead.
Tyson, who might have been ordered off if Crawford Allan had spotted his off-the-ball altercation with Darren O’Dea, was centimetres away from doubling Killie’s lead when, after being played in by William Boyle, his shot from 12 yards struck the top of Bain’s crossbar.
It could have been a costly miss – Dundee raced up to the other end and Marcus Haber failed to hit the target with a header from a yard out after being picked out by Kevin Holt.