Back me and we’ll never face the drop again, says Clark
HE stopped just short of slapping a written contract down on the table, but Lee Clark came armed with a proposal all the same. One he truly believes will see Kilmarnock preserve their top-flight status if the other party is agreeable.
For so long, Rugby Park has resembled a white elephant. Where four stands used to be required to house expectant supporters, the disaffected could now easily be crammed into one.
The reasons for this are many, but the loss of employment in the town and the continuing presence of Michael Johnston on the club’s board are chief among them.
Tomorrow, however, is no place for a continuation of the in-fighting that has proved the backdrop to what has been a miserable season to date. Clark needs his supporters supporting — and he needs plenty of them doing it. If he gets that, his promise can be taken to the bank. Namely that, as long as he’s in charge, Killie will never again find themselves fighting for their top-flight survival.
‘I want them to stay with us right until the last kick,’ said Clark. ‘I have experience of this with Birmingham City (keeping them in the Championship in the final game of the 2013-14 season). We got the goal we needed against Bolton in the 96th minute.
‘After 78 minutes, we were 2-0 down and Doncaster were drawing against Leicester, which would have kept them up and put us down. But we drew and they lost and what happened there was that there was a surge from the Birmingham fans to get behind the players.
‘The Kilmarnock fans, I know, will do that with us. We always want a fast start and we had one in the first leg but it’s important that the fans realise they have a huge role to play.
‘It’s difficult to keep asking them to do that when they haven’t had much to shout about for so long now.
‘But if they give us one more go on Sunday and we get the result we need, then I’ll put my head on the block and promise that this won’t be the scenario in future.
‘I would like to see every available ticket sold for our sections. I know that Falkirk have sold out their allocation.
‘Listen, I’ve been taken aback by the numbers who have given us their backing away from home and they need to be repaid. If they stick with us all the way through on Sunday, then we will achieve our target.’
Plenty of teams have played much worse than Kilmarnock did at the Falkirk Stadium on Thursday night yet won games this season.
If the concern for the Rugby Park faithful — after losing to a stoppage-time Will Vaulks goal — is that the performance may not even be as good on Sunday, Clark’s faith in his players remains totally unstinting.
‘Nothing has changed from what I said,’ added Clark. ‘We were the dominant team in a match where we had more clear-cut chances and it’s a game in which we gave away a ridiculous goal. Simple as that.
‘We are only 1-0 down at halftime. The second half of the tie is long, 95 or 96 minutes at least, so we don’t need to panic. If we only get the one goal, we take it from there and into extra-time but, hopefully, we have enough in the locker to get more than one over the course of the match.
‘Nothing was going to be decided in the first game. It was just about who had the advantage, which Falkirk got with the final kick.
‘We were frustrated. We would have felt the same if it had been 0-0 and we are even more frustrated by the manner of the goal. But it doesn’t knock your belief that we still have a great chance of doing the job.
‘Our general performances since I arrived at the club have been of a high standard.’
Clark remains hopeful Josh Magennis will be able to play some part for Killie tomorrow. The Northern Irishman, who has hit 13 goals this season and will head to the Euros this summer, has missed the last two games with a hamstring strain but his boss remains optimistic that he will be at least a contender for the bench.
‘We are still waiting,’ said Clark. ‘It might go down to the very last minute. We will give him every opportunity, even the chance of taking a risk with him if he’s prepared to do it. That risk might be that, if we need him with 30 minutes to go, then we’ll throw him on.
‘That has to be a conversation between me and him. If he is prepared to do it, he is a big player for us in every sense of the word.
‘Josh has good characteristics. We will talk, me and him, over the next day or so to see where we are at.’