KILLIE CRUISING
Clark feeling so confident after sailing past Dundee
KILMARNOCK, second from bottom of the table at the kick-off, moved into the top six with this thoroughly merited victory.
Dominant for long spells against strangely supine opponents, the Ayrshire side really ought to have made a dent in their unimpressive goal difference here but their performance still had manager Lee Clark purring afterwards.
‘No disrespect to Dundee — it could have been a bigger margin but we’re not getting carried away,’ he said. ‘We’re in the top six but we have a tough game at Aberdeen on Tuesday and we know the league is going to swing around every weekend because it’s so tight.
‘Take out Celtic and a few of the teams chasing them, then every other side will need to be right on their games. Every manager is saying this month is huge.
‘I felt it was a similar performance to what we saw when we beat Hearts, so I’m really pleased with the consistency.
‘It’s been at a really high level in the last six or seven weeks — even in defeat to Celtic — and I’ve told the players we need to keep that.
‘When we come up against the teams around us, we need to get wins and now we’ll go to Aberdeen on Tuesday full of confidence.’
Clark also singled out holding midfielder Gary Dicker, so often the unsung hero, for special praise.
‘Gary was outstanding,’ he said. ‘He was quality on the ball and did a great job protecting the back four.
‘He even had time to do a step-over in the corner. He’s asked if we can get it on Soccer AM, but we’ll need to tell them it’s not actually in slow motion!’
The visitors had an early chance to take the lead when Marcus Haber held the ball up and then rolled it into the path of Kostadin Gadzhalov, but the defender fired wide.
However, Cammy Kerr was lucky to receive a yellow card instead of a straight red when he cynically scythed down Jordan Jones on the halfway line.
Luke Hendrie joined him in referee Crawford Allan’s notebook for a challenge on Haber, although the full-back appeared to have won the ball.
The home support launched into a protest against unpopular major shareholder Michael Johnston in the 18th minute (there was another in the 69th minute, marking the year of the formation of Scotland’s oldest professional club) when Nathan Tyson flashed a header wide from Rory McKenzie’s cross.
It was McKenzie who broke the deadlock, however, when a shot from Jones was deflected into his path and he hit home from 15 yards.
Paul Hartley sent on Danny Williams in place of James Vincent and the midfielder was soon in the thick of it, with home goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald doing well to hold his effort.
Mr Allan was not enjoying the best of afternoons and Souleymane Coulibaly found himself booked for a tackle on Paul McGowan which did not look to be a foul.
Tyson appeared to strike Darren O’Dea on the face as they tangled on the ground and the striker came close to adding insult to injury when he clipped the crossbar with a rising drive immediately after the restart.
Killie were the better side but a one-goal lead is always precarious and Haber should have equalised with a header at the far post which failed to trouble MacDonald.
However, Scott Bain kept Dundee in it, diving full length to tip over a free-kick from Steven Smith while William Boyle was inches away with a header from a corner.
The punishment was merely delayed. When Smith burst down the left and cut the ball back, Coulibaly bust a gut to beat Gadzhalov and fire it into the roof of the net.
Dundee were forced to send more men forward and Tyson almost hit them on the break, with Bain diving to his right to keep out his net-bound drive and the keeper, the only visitor to enhance his reputation, also denied McKenzie.
Williams almost snatched a consolation but MacDonald kept out his header with an outstretched leg.
‘We had a couple of chances with point-blank headers we should do better with and Marcus should have done better but, overall, we weren’t at our best so I don’t have any complaints,’ said Dundee manager Hartley.
‘My players have been excellent over the last five or six weeks but it’s going to be like this because there’s not a lot between seven or eight clubs and there will be times when it doesn’t go for you.’