Killie’s late winner Taylor-made for a first league victory
KILMARNOCK 2
Armstrong (71), Taylor (76)
MOTHERWELL 1
Van Veen (14)
Kilmarnock moved off the foot of the table with a hard-fought first league win of 2022/23 but they left it late to find a cutting edge.
Motherwell scored early and looked fairly comfortable as Derek McInnes’ men squandered chance after chance, but their relentless pressure in the final 30 minutes paid off, moving them up to ninth place while their opponents drop to fourth.
“They did what we asked them to – we looked after the ball and we were unlucky a few times,” said McInnes. “We just need to tidy up in the final third.
“Ben Chrisene is an absolute dream regarding how he plays the game and you can see why we were so eager to get him.
“He was unlucky not to make his debut with a goal after hitting the bar but we now have two young full-backs and they were terrific here.
“Thursday and Friday were the best two days’ training we’ve had since I came here. I felt confident we would score in the second half and, for the winner, Ash Taylor came round the back, which was an area we had targeted and he attacked the ball brilliantly.
“I was still surprised to see the ball end up in the back of the net, though, because he was supposed to head it back across!
“That was a bit of a shock but it was no more than the players deserved.”
Kevin van Veen created the first opening of the contest after less than two minutes, collecting a long punt from Ricki Lamie, flicking it over the head of Ryan Abeliousu and then firing in a shot Sam Walker could only parry.
Killie finally found a foothold in the contest when Lamie brought down Lafferty 25 yards out and the Northern Ireland striker’s free-kick cleared the bar by inches.
However, the visitors took a deserved lead in the 14th minute, courtesy of some slack defending from the hosts.
Blair Spittal claimed the assist with another through-ball but, after van Veen had outpaced Ash Taylor, the Dutchman benefited from goalkeeper Sam Walker and Lewis Mayo leaving it for each other and he nipped in between them to fire home from six yards.
Lafferty should have levelled in the 28th minute when a cross from Chrisene found him unmarked at the far corner of the six-yard box but the veteran snatched at the chance and spooned his shot over.
Killie came closer still seven minutes from the interval when Chrisene crashed a shot off the underside of the crossbar and Lafferty lashed the rebound over.
The home side piled on the pressure and Oli Shaw had a netbound drive deflected wide.
They then started the second half the way they finished the first, Daniel Armstrong firing in a snapshot from 18 yards which fizzed just past the right-hand post.
They finally found the net with 19 minutes remaining.
A glancing header from Armstrong forced Kelly into his first save of the afternoon and the winger was first to react to the rebound, slamming it behind the ’keeper from point-blank range.
It was end-to-end stuff as both teams chased a winner and Walker made an impressive one-handed save to deny substitute Ross Tierney before Killie went in front for the first time in the Premiership this season.
Liam Polworth was the architect with a perfectly-flighted free-kick and centre-half Ash Taylor bulleted an unsaveable header into the net for his second goal of the campaign.
Kelly dived to his left to claw away a swerving angled drive from Armstrong as the Ayrshire outfit sought the comfort of a two-goal cushion. They didn’t need it.