FIND QUICK FIX OR MISS THE TOP SIX
Hartley: We’re leaking pts we should pocket
Dundee boss Paul Hartley watched his side move three places up the table – then admitted their top six dream will die unless they get into the winning groove.
The Dark Blues, whose 27th minute equaliser from Kevin Holt cancelled out Kris Boyd’s opener for Lee Clark’s side, climbed from tenth to seventh in the Premiership in this re-arranged fixture.
But the toi l ing Taysiders contrived to miss another chance to put their foot in the top six with a performance which summed up their stop-start season.
They remain winless in 2017 and nobody more than Hartley knows the importance of changing that sorry sequence between now and the end of the campaign.
Ha rt l e y sa i d : “We had opportunities to win it but we didn’t pass the ball well enough.
“They probably had the better possession but we weren’t at our best so we’ll take a point.
“I think we could have possibly taken six points from the last two games.
“They’re the games you need to win against teams who are round about you in the table if you want to try to get into the top six.
“Home games are vital for us but we didn’t perform like we can to be honest.
“Between now and the end of the season the main aim is to try to get three points in every game.
“We had an opportunity last week against Inverness and another this week but we haven’t taken either so maybe that sums our season up.”
Kilmarnock got off to a great start by taking the lead in the eighth minute.
Boyd chased down a long bal l forward from Luke Hendrie and slipped it round home keeper Scott Bain who’d raced off his line.
With Kevin Gomis in hot pursuit, Boyd got just enough power on the ball for it to trickle into the net and get the Ayrshire club off to a flier. Dundee were shaken by this early setback but had a chance to level in 17 minutes.
Former Killie midfielder Mark O’Hara found himself clean through but his left- foot shot was saved by visiting keeper Freddie Woodman.
However, in 27 minutes the hosts equalised through Holt.
Cammy Kerr’s diagonal switch was perfect for the left back to run onto and the full-back smashed a low left-foot volley past Woodman.
On 39 minutes Henrik Ojamaa found some space to unleash a shot which was tipped round the post by Woodman. Canadian Marcus Haber then had a close-range header blocked by the Killie defence. The second half started with Boyd latching onto Gomis’s short pass-back but Bain did well to race off his line and clear the danger. At the other end, Ojamaa’s 75th minute cross was met by Haber but the big striker couldn’t direct his effort on target. With six minutes left Dundee came close again when Marc Klok’s deep cross was headed downwards by Kostadin Gadzhalov but Woodman saved before substitute Faissal El-Bakhtaoui dragged his late shot past the post. Killie boss Lee Clark said: “We started brilliantly and deservedly took the lead. “If there was any sl ight criticism we should have been a bit more ruthless in front of goal. But overall I’m liking the level of our performance. “There are lots of positives. Being hyper-critical, I would say we need to turn these good displays into victories.”