STANDARD BEARERS
ROSS COUNTY v KILLIE Clarke tells his players they must keep on impressing
KILMARNOCK had their 15 minutes of shame but Steve Clarke reckons his players deserve more fame for the way they’ve met his high standards.
In his first two months in charge Clarke can only recount one brief spell when his players let him down in a sleepy first 15 minutes of the 2-1 defeat against Aberdeen.
Otherwise the Killie boss can find no cause for complaint about the attitude and endeavour of a group who have fully bought into his plans to raise the standard expected of them every single day.
On Saturday they got their rewards by at last ending a miserable home record without a league win all season – doing it in style by thrashing Partick Thistle 5-1.
Now Clarke wants to see his side build on that boost by hauling themselves into the top six when they get back on the road today to face Ross County in Dingwall.
He said: “Since I came in there was only one occasion where I was unhappy with the players – and that was just the opening 15 minutes against Aberdeen.
“I set high standards and I think the players have tried to rise to meet them which is good for everybody.
“It was nice to continue the good run we’ve been on by getting that home win at last. Now we’re looking for another performance and another win in Dingwall.
“If you’re going to lay a bogey to rest it’s best to do it convincingly and eventually we did that on Saturday. At 2-1 the game was still in the balance but the third goal was crucial – it was plain sailing after that.
“Youssouf Mulumbu and Gary Dicker bring experience. So do Alan Power, the two centre-backs, the goalkeeper and Kris Boyd up front.
“We were under pressure because of our record at home but when you put experienced pros out there you expect them to do the business and they did.
“Their experience was vital in getting us over that hurdle but I’ll be looking to use the squad wisely over the next couple of weeks. This is a club that prides itself on rearing young players and you need a good mix.”
Chris Burke emphasised the influence Clarke is having on the squad as he brings the methods he used working beside Jose Mourinho at Chelsea.
The winger said: “Trust me, when we heard he was coming everybody was a little bit shocked and happy and excited to work with someone of his calibre. He has managed in the Premier League and worked with the top managers in the world.
“Since the gaffer came in you can see the performances have improved and that’s shown in the results, especially the 5-1 win.
“What a way to shift that dark cloud that was hanging over us at home. A lot of times we’d just missed out on three points at home with late equalisers against St Johnstone, Hamilton and Dundee.
“We always knew the results would come but after a while it gets annoying. You don’t want to have to rely on your away record to move up the league.
“So it was a fantastic result. The lads were great from start to finish. We were ruthless.
“I think teams would have preferred to come and play us at our patch just because of what was happening. But we knew that through time we would start getting results at home based on the strength of our performances over the last two months.
“We’re doing fantastically but we need to keep it up. It’s all about consistency in this league. If you stay in the game you’ve always got a chance of winning and we’ve proved that in recent weeks.
“If we sort our home form out and keep up the consistency away we can only look up rather than thinking about what’s below us.”