Dream teen Watson fires Killie to victory
Kilmarnock boss Derek Mcinnes hailed the midfield goalscorers that have helped the club reach fourth place at Christmas.
The highlight of a lively game was undoubtedly the early strike by 18-year-old midfielder David Watson that put the home side ahead.
He unleashed a shot from just outside the box and watched it fly past Dimitar Mitov via the inside of the post.
His manager maintained it was the type of goal that has taken Killie from near the bottom of the table last year to their current position in a European place.
He said: “We didn’t have a central midfielder score a single goal for us last season and now we have (Brad) Lyons and Watson on three.
“It certainly helps put us where we are in the league.
“David has a brilliant strike on him and he enjoys being the difference. When he scored at Celtic Park it wasn’t a winning goal, but it was a brilliant finish.
“At Aberdeen it was a winner and he had the feeling of responsibility for getting his team three points.
“When a young player gets these goals, I think it makes him hungry to score more.
“We’ve done a lot of work on his finishing, but we haven’t seen this sort of goal from him.”
Watson signed a two-year contract with the club back in May, but there must be some English teams taking note of his progress.
Another bright spark for the Ayrshire men in recent times has been Danny Armstrong. He supplied the cutback that let Marley Watkins prod home his fifth goal of the season.
Killie really should have had their festive victory all wrapped up within the first 30 minutes.
Kyle Vassell somehow managed send a volley over the bar from a couple of yards out.
Making it 3-0 at that point would have given Craig Levein little hope of turning things round with a half-time pep talk.
However, the second half didn’t go quite as smoothly as Mcinnes’ men had hoped.
Saints upped their game and were a lot more determined in their efforts to threaten the opposition goal.
They pulled a goal back when a Smith free-kick from the left was nodded in by substitute Nicky Clark.
Clark was making only his fifth appearance of this campaign and he has four goals to his credit.
There was later an incident when VAR didn’t come into play and most of the supporters were wishing it would.
St Johnstone keeper Dimiar Mitov came racing out of the area and fouled Vassell on the right wing.
Referee John Beaton decided it was only worth a yellow card, but the posts would have been untended had he got past Mitov and that could well be a goal-scoring opportunity.
The on-field whistler didn’t think so and VAR official Don Robertson, as far as we know, agreed.
Mcinnes felt it could have been a red card, Levein didn’t.
There were more chances at both ends, but the one that would, and probably should, have changed the outcome fell to St Johnstone.
A Fran Franczak cross from the right was delivered straight into the path of Tony Gallacher, only for the defender to miss the target right in front of goal.
While the Killie fans went off to celebrate, Mcinnes was already planning for their next game against St Mirren.
He said: “Christmas is for everybody else, it is not for us. It is for boys with kids, it is about them, but it is also about us being professional.
“We will get a wee winter break in 10 days’ time.”