Dyer anger as Livi snub Killie’s plea

Killie boss says he’d have expected more help from a fellow top-flight club.

Dyer’s side return from their Covid shutdown tonight in the Betfred Cup tie against Dunfermline.

But only five senior players are available to join a squad made up of mainly youth players.

The remainder of the first team are set to return from 14 days isolation tomorrow morning, leaving Dyer scrambling to have a side fit and prepared for the trip to Livi on Saturday.

Killie had a request for their Premiership fixture against Motherwell to be postponed granted by the SPFL in the last round of games, just a day after their squad went into isolation.

But with players now available, Livi have rejected their request to move Saturday’s game back to Monday or Tuesday as they face a trip to Ibrox the following weekend.

Dyer said: “We emailed the league and they said Livi didn’t want to postpone the game so we have to play the game.

“We’re just asking for a little bit of fairness so players can come back and make sure they’re right for the game whether it’s one or two days down the line and play the game.

“The truth is everybody looks after their own.

“It ’s disappointing because it would be fair for someone to give us a little bit more time. It could happen to anybody and any football club – and people should help one another.

“We want to play the game but I don’t want to play if I don’t have enough players. The rules are if you have 13 fit players then you need to play, so we will need to see on that one.”

Dyer expects Killie to be cleared of any wrongdoing after the league’s probe into a potential Covid protocol breach at Rugby Park.

He said: “They’re still looking into it. The authorities have been in and had a look around at our facilities and how we do things. As far as I know they’ve said we’ve done the right things.

“We don’t know how the virus came in, we aren’t going to pinpoint one player and say, ‘He brought it in’, no one knows.”