Levein: We were two down before we turned up!
St Johnstone boss Craig Levein bemoaned the start made by his team that left them “snookered” at Rugby Park.
He was unable to explain why there had been such a below-par performance during the first half of their second defeat in four days. Saints performed a lot better after conceding two goals and Levein wondered if that was because the pressure of winning had gone. He said: “We’ve not started any games since I’ve been here in that manner.
“I also have to say as much as we were off it, Killie started really well. “We were two down and they missed a chance to go to three before we even turned up. “Then when we turned up. I was happy. I thought we ended the first half well and then I thought we had more dominance, and I was pleased with the performance. “We snookered ourselves by giving away two goals early on.
“I was just trying to work out what the heck had happened. It’s much easier looking back and I’ll pore over the footage. “I don’t know if going two behind actually took the pressure off and we then thought maybe we’ll start playing football now. “Once we started doing that it was harder for Killie to get dominance and their chances started to dry up.”
Levein was delighted to be able to bring on Nicky Clark after an absence of six weeks and even more pleased when he scored. His header gave the Perth men real hope of taking something from the game after previously looking dead and buried. He said: “Getting Nicky is obviously a massive thing for us.
“With calf problems, you’re always worried about how much game time you can manage. “He scored and was clever in his play. That’s always going to help us. “When you have a striker who knows he needs to be good to get goals and assists in this league, they are worth their weight on gold. “He’s the only one we have of that type. “We have other guys who can run and do the rest of it but there’s a real art to putting the ball in the back of the net as he did.”
While Derek Mcinnes was adamant that Kyle Vassell was heading into the penalty area when taken down by the St Johnstone keeper, making it a clear goalscoring opportunity and a red card, Levein took the opposite view. He stated: “It has gone away into the corner and he wouldn’t have caught it.
“So, I think the referee made the correct call. It’s different if the ball had been going towards goal and there was a chance of scoring.”