kilmarnock 2 queen’s park 0
Brophy (61), K Boyd (pen, 90+3)
Kilmarnock, ante-post favourites for Group H, finished top of their section with his hard-fought, but thoroughly merited victory, which guaranteed that their name would be in the hat for today’s draw for the last-16 of the Betfred Cup.
Manager Steve Clarke praised his players for their patience, as they were into the final third of the game before they managed to wear down their League 2 opponents.
“Good game, good goals, job done,” he said.
“It’s been a long, drawn-out process, but we got there in the end.
“They sat in and they were well organised, which you would expect from a team managed by Gus Macpherson.
“We should have had a penalty in the first half when Mikael Ndjoli was brought down, but we didn’t get the decision.
“We had to bide our time, just like we had to do against Spartans in midweek, but now we want to go as far as we possibly can in the competition.
“Look at Motherwell, who reached both cup finals last season.”
Killie would represent a decent each-way bet for the knock-out tournaments and the pre-season optimism has been justified by their unbeaten start to the campaign.
They took a while to hit their stride yesterday, but they got there in the end.
Arch-poacher Kris Boyd should have fired them ahead on the hour mark, but he headed wide from six yards after Scotland full-back Stephen O’donnell had found him with an inviting delivery.
However, Eamonn Brophy eased the pressure almost immediately when he smashed Mikael Ndjoli’s cutback behind Jordan Hart to open the scoring.
Boyd was out of luck again when Lee Erwin’s incisive pass left him with just Hart to beat and his shot came back off the post.
Fortunately for the former Scotland striker, he was able to atone for those misses from the penalty spot late into injury time.
Brought down by Scott Gibson, he beat Hart low to his right to claim his 299th career goal.
“We were excellent,” said Queen’s manager Gus Macpherson.
“A lot of questions were asked of us defensively and they stood up to the challenge.
“The boys were a credit to themselves against St Mirren in midweek and now Kilmarnock – two teams who will be aiming for the top six.”