Killie are booed off by frustrated supporters
KILMARNOCK 0
ALBION ROVERS 0
(Rovers won 5-3 on penalties for bonus point)
KILMARNOCK, who beat Celtic to win the tournament just four years ago, were booed off the field at the end of their latest campaign.
Josh Magennis was a hero with Northern Ireland at the Euros but the big striker saw his penalty saved by Ross Stewart during the meaningless penalty shoot-out as Lee Clark’s side failed to make it into the last 16.
The other Ross Stewart, Michael Dunlop, Paul Willis, Kyle Turnbull and Scott McBride were Rovers’ penalty kings, while Steven Smith, Gary Dicker and Flo Bojaj converted for the home side.
It was another disappointment for Killie manager Lee Clark, whose side had been turned over by Championship side Morton at Rugby Park seven days earlier.
Now his youngsters need to grow up quickly ahead of next weekend’s Premiership opener at home to Motherwell.
“We have to be ready,” he said. “Let’s not be little babies about it. They’ve got to come out and show more than has been shown so far.
“We need to be more courageous and I’ve got to pick a team and make the substitutions which will help us make a positive start to the league campaign.”
As expected, the Premiership side had the best of the early exchanges. Souleymane Coulibaly might have had a penalty in the ninth minute when he was clattered from behind by Michael Dunlop. Magennis, sent clear by Dicker’s perfectly-weighted pass, saw a rising drive clear the crossbar by millimetres.
Referee Bobby Madden was in the thick of it again in the 22nd minute when he ruled out what appeared to be a legitimate goal for Rovers.
William Boyle crashed into goalkeeper Owen Davies as they both went to gather a long through ball, Davies dropped it and Ryan Wallace stroked it into the unguarded net.
However, the official infuriated the visitors when he indicated that Wallace had pushed Boyle and awarded a foul to Killie.
Coulibaly was Killie’s biggest threat and his piledriver from Steven Smith’s cutback beat Ross Stewart but clipped the top of his crossbar in the 57th minute.
However, Albion Rovers refused to lie down and Mark Ferry forced goalkeeper
Davies to turn his low 20-yarder behind at full stretch.
Rovers keeper Stewart made his first save seven minutes from the end when he reacted quickly to collect Coulibaly’s cheeky backheeled effort.
“Only in the last 10 minutes have we shown a bit of urgency and I don’t know why that is,” said Clark. “We reiterated that to them at halftime and said we needed to do that more so why we’ve waited until then to do that I don’t know.
“We should have been doing that from the off and, certainly, from the first whistle of the second half because I’d just spoken to them about it. It’s not as though we didn’t have enough attacking players out there but did we create enough chances for them? No!”