Ash: Cup loss is on players
Gutted Ash Taylor admits the Ki l lie players take ful l responsibi l ity for their Scottish Cup shocker.
The Premiership strugglers were soundly beaten at Inverness on Friday night.
Killie took the lead through Kyle Vassell but ended up crashing out 2-1.
Caley Thistle go into tomorrow’s semi-final draw while Derek McInnes’ men are left to lick their wounds.
Defender Taylor said: “I don’t know what went wrong.
“It is difficult to explain a performance like that.
“It is on us as players and we take full responsibility for that as it was nowhere near good enough.
“We had been banging on about how important it was to get the first goal given our poor away form.
“We did that then went into our shell a little bit, letting Inverness back in the game.”
Furious Kilmarnock boss McInnes had to concede his team were outfought by Caley Thistle and rightly came off second-best. Killie had been
eyeing up a second semi-final of the season but instead were left empty-handed.
Taylor admitted: “The manager wasn’t happy.
“We will sit back and reflect on what was a big missed opportunity.
“We had no rhythm or flow to our game and we didn’t do the things we normally do.”
There is no time for doom and gloom as Killie remain in a relegation dogfight.
They are only three points in front of Dundee United and Taylor knows there needs to be a marked improvement in performances and results if they want to safeguard their top-flight status.
That starts at home against St Johnstone next weekend before Hearts visit Ayrshire.
Kilmarnock have a decent record at Rugby Park this season but their form has been awful run on the road.
“It is something we must rectify quickly,” Taylor said.
“You ca n’ t hav e performances like that given where we are in the league.
“We are in a dog fight and we need to improve to get out of the position we are in.”