Practice made perfect again for 10-man Killie
KILMARNOCK 3
Grivosti (42)
Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer hailed his 10-man specialists after a memorable victory that took them into the top six.
He saw Stuart Findlay receive a red card after only eight minutes, but maintained he never feared his players would crumble.
The Rugby Park men have a special training routine to cope with being one-man down.
Dyer said: “I was quite calm when Stuart went off because I know what these players can do. We got a good result against Hamilton with 10 men and it was the same kind of game.
“We knew what we had to do because we train that way, playing 10 versus nine.
“Our wide players, Mitch Pinnock and Rory Mckenzie, were excellent.
“Gary Dicker and Aaron Tshibola were brilliant, our back four was tremendous and Danny Rogers made a great save to keep us in the game.
“Mitch is a very good footballer and he’s had to bide
his time since he came here but he’s never once knocked on my door – he just works hard every single day and shows the quality he has.”
It was indeed a remarkable win considering Findlay was lost so early.
He got a through ball caught under his feet and Ross Stewart nicked it from him.
The defender tried to redeem the situation and his opponent went down. It was just outside the penalty area and it was a clear goalscoring opportunity.
However, Alex Dyer believes his man got a touch on the ball and will appeal the red card.
Playing with an extra man for 82 minutes looked like a dream come true for County, but in fact, they looked like the team missing a body for most of the game.
Their recurring problem of not dealing properly with balls into the box was in evidence when Killie went ahead.
A Mcgowan free-kick was cleared only as far as Pinnock, who whipped in a cross which Brophy headed home.
Billy Mckay was brought off the bench before the half hour mark as County tried to put the home defence under pressure.
The Ayrshire men could have been out of sight before County equalised – Brophy had a volley well saved and Kabamba headed wide.
Stephen Kelly was heavily involved in helping the Staggies
get back on level terms. His shot was deflected wide and it was his cross from the short corner that was nodded home by Grivosti.
Fans of the Dingwall side will have hoped the revival was under way. They were to be disappointed.
Kilmarnock brought on Zeno Ibsen Rossi at halftime, putting the on-loan Bournemouth defender in defence alongside Kirk Broadfoot.
That allowed them to restore Gary Dicker to midfield after spending most of the first half filling in for Findlay.
Broadfoot came close to scoring when a powerful shot from the edge of the box was pushed round the post by Doohan.
County shot themselves in the foot when Donaldson fouled Pinnock in the box and the referee didn’t hesitate in pointing to the spot.
Nicke Kabamba calmly converted the penalty kick.
There were opportunities for the visitors to equalise – Stewart scooped an effort over and a long-range effort from Reid was well saved by Rogers.
But Killie defended solidly and the icing on the cake for them came when Chris Burke hit a third goal in added-on time. The veteran winger ran into the box, switched the ball from left to right and hammered it into the net.