Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Deacon urges Dark Blues to put on 90-minute show
“To be fair, we played unbelievable football for the first 70 minutes and then for the last 20 we let our standards slip.
“The gaffer always talks about standards and not letting them drop from day one when we all walk through the door in pre-season.
“There’s only been a few times we’ve let our standards drop and, obviously, Tuesday was one.
“We just have to look to tomorrow and put everything right.”
Deacon himself appears to be getting back to his best form after almost two months out with a thigh problem.
He was a danger all night to the Killie defence from the right, winning a few free-kicks, delivering into the area and was the man brought down with a scything challenge from Gary Dicker that saw the Kilmarnock man sent off.
“It wasn’t a fantastic tackle to be honest but it’s one of those where you know it’s coming and you can ride the tackle a bit.
“He did catch me but not full on — if he had and my leg was planted it could have been a lot worse than what it was.
“I try to avoid them but I feel I attract those sort of tackles.
“It is what it is, I just take them. Some of the tackles are laughable — the one on Tuesday, because I wasn’t seriously hurt, it was laughable how high he did catch me.
“As a winger, as a flair player, you’ve just got to take that and keep playing.”