Killie need to Power up to ensure the last Laff
With 12 goals in his last eight games, Kyle Lafferty could not be called Kilmarnock’s secret weapon by any stretch of the imagination
However, as his team-mate, Alan Power, insists, it does not matter how much attention he gets from opposition sides if they are not able to handle him.
Hamilton Accies’ back line will be the latest group to try their luck at the Fountain of Youth Stadium today, with Killie’s regular season sign-off set to be followed by a play-off against Dundee.
“It is important to have a big-game player for these tests. Every team needs them – and we’ve got one in Kyle,” said Power.
“He has brought us a lot of goals.
“He doesn’t train very well through the week, so I feel like he owes us that on a game day!
“But he does it. That is when he provides, and that’s all we can ask of him.
“We just need to keep him right, keep providing those balls because he seems to stick them away for us.”
As Cristiano Ronaldo has discovered at Juventus this season, though, not even the world’s best players can do everything on their own.
Lafferty, who numbers Rangers and Hearts among his former clubs, scored two fine goals against St Mirren last Wednesday night. But it proved not to be enough, with Killie held to a 3-3 draw.
It is a situation that 33-year-old Dubliner Power argues has to be addressed now before it is too late.
“We have to help Kyle out with a few goals, and keep them out at the other end, as a team,” he said.
“That’s collectively. We have to do that to give ourselves the best chance to get out of this situation.
“It is so frustrating conceding after scoring – twice. So we didn’t even learn our lesson after the first one.
“We have to work as a team to stop conceding now because we know we can score goals ourselves.
“I think everyone is pitching in. There are different areas of the pitch where we need to be quite solid, and keep the goals out to let the other boys do their business up front.
“We know what we have to do – get a clean sheet and a win against Hamilton and hope Motherwell do us a favour against Ross County.”
If Power’s immediate focus is avoiding the Premiership play-off altogether, he acknowledges the end game is just to stay up by whatever means necessary.
“Listen, we know how big this is for the fans, the people here,” he said.
“This is my fourth year here, so I know what the club means to everybody. I know how big the club is and we’re all fighting for the same thing.
“If people on the outside don’t think that, then they’re wrong.
“We are working hard every day, and we need to put that in at Hamilton, do our best, go win the game, and hopefully keep this club where it needs to be.”
Anyone who has watched the midfielder’s combative displays over the 2020-21 campaign would testify to his commitment to the cause. He will keep fighting until Killie’s fate is decided, one way or the other.
“I’ve been in a relegation battle before at Lincoln (in the Blue Square Premier League in 2012-13 when he scored two penalties in the last two games of the season). But that was in our own hands at that stage,” he said.
“And we should have this in our own hands, really. We’ve slipped up in too many games.
“We stayed up at Lincoln. Hopefully, that’s a good omen for us now.
“There’s pressure there but that can be no bad thing. We need to use it to try to get the best out of everybody.
“This is what football is all about. We’re fighting for something, we need to be men about it and face it.”