DICKER VOWS KILLIE WILL STEER CLEAR OF RELEGATION INSOMNIA
SEVEN months on, the mental scars have just about healed. The resolve never to go through such an experience again has never been stronger. Kilmarnock’s escape act via the play-offs last season ultimately brought joy and relief in no small quantities, but it was an episode all of the protagonists could well have done without. Gary Dicker still winces at the memory of those two games in four days against Falkirk. Rugby Park may ultimately have basked in the glory of a 4-1 aggregate triumph, yet such were the enhanced stakes at play that the memory of it remains tinged with trauma. ‘I didn’t sleep for a week. It wasn’t nice,’ recalled the Dubliner. ‘It was probably the first time I’d been in a real proper scrap where it was a do-or-die game. ‘You know it can change a lot of people’s careers — not just players but people working at the club. ‘When you are younger you think there’s always next year, always another team. ‘But your career goes by in the blink of an eye. That’s what I keep saying to the lads — every day matters and every game matters. ‘You don’t want to be involved in those games. I certainly don’t and I’m sure the rest of them don’t. They aren’t good for anyone, especially the manager.’ A point gained at Firhill on Saturday at least allowed Lee Clark’s men to enter the winter break without a rerun of that late May drama being an immediate concern. That dubious honour presently belongs to Hamilton, although a three-point lead over the Lanarkshire men ahead of a Scottish Cup clash on January 21 is hardly a cause to hang the bunting and book the marching band. Still, this rather stodgy affair was not the worst way for the Rugby Park men to finish the old year, as a profligate Thistle side missed the chance to rack up a third consecutive victory. Killie withstood something of a first-half onslaught and were fortuitous in at least one of the offside decisions given against their hosts.
Having ridden their luck, Clark’s depleted side belatedly bared their teeth and, by full-time, were left with a sense of what might have been on account of Souleymane Coulibaly’s point-blank header flashing inches wide of the target. Few teams need the January break more than Kilmarnock. Kris Boyd, Miles Addison and Rory McKenzie should be hale and hearty by its conclusion. For Dicker, a midfielder forced to fill in at centre-half on Saturday, the return of such experienced operators will provide a platform with which to climb the table. ‘If we get some of our bigger players back in January, it will help,’ he added. ‘It is quite a young team. We’ve missed a few of the older lads and, hopefully, we can sign a few. They bring that bit more experience. People who have been about a bit can help us when we do have a few injuries because you can see we are down to the bare bones. ‘It’s young lads even on the bench, but all credit to the ones who have been thrown in. ‘They’ve not let themselves down. Usually you get thrown in when the team is doing all right and you are playing with a lot more experienced players. ‘But they’ve all done very well. I don’t know what will happen at the bottom of the table. I think we just have to worry about ourselves and try and get into that top six.’ Partick’s brief dalliance with the upper-half of the table was ended by an inability to break Killie down, coupled with Ross County’s victory in the Highland derby. Kris Doolan and Adam Barton had testing efforts saved by Jamie MacDonald early on, with Stevie Lawless and Chris Erskine having successive shots repelled by the visitors’ redoubtable defence soon after. Striker Doolan may have been erroneously denied a goal to mark his 300th appearance later in the day but, having taken seven points out of nine over the festive period, Partick are still entitled to view the tail end of 2016 positively. ‘It’s been a tough run in the past two or three weeks and it will be good to get the break to give us a chance of getting our legs back,’ said Lawless. ‘We need to beat the teams around us and we knew the three games we’ve just had would make or break our season. So, to get seven points from nine is very pleasing. ‘We feel like we can really push on now after the winter break.’