The Kilmarnock revival starts here
It has been coming. Remarkably, this was a first league victory in eight matches for Derek McInnes’ side since the opening day of the 2023/24 campaign when a goal from Brad Lyons was enough to take all three points against Rangers. That sequence was all the more surprising given that they followed up that Rangers result by drawing away to Hearts and then knocking holders Celtic out of the Viaplay Cup at Rugby Park before the barren spell commenced.
On paper there were causes for concern when they could harvest only three points from a possible 21 but anyone who has watched them during that period would have discerned that they are a better team than that run suggested.
A few poor decisions (from their own players but also from officials) proved costly on occasion but no-one, including Celtic, was giving them a pounding: they were always in contention during the games they lost and, with a rub of the green, they might have won some of those they ended up drawing.
They moved up to fifth with this victory and, with winnable matches at home against Aberdeen and Motherwell and away to St Johnstone and Hibernian looming, they will fancy their chances of cementing their place in the top six.
McInnes relieved to stop the rot
Having hit the bar often enough in recent months it was vital for Kilmarnock to push on and claim a victory and McInnes celebrated the outcome at full-time, embracing and high-fiving his players as they left the pitch.
There was satisfaction to be had in the way the game had panned out but no small amount of relief as well. “We totally needed to win,” he admitted. “There was no getting away from that - I can sit here and go on about the positives and there were some in our previous performances. “We’ve been good in isolated games and these teams we drew with – Hearts, St Mirren, Hibs – are good sides: those matches aren’t gimmes.
“So there were a lot of games in this run we’ve done okay in but, even so, I didn’t enjoy looking at the league table.
“Obviously, we knew we could go fifth today and, while you don’t want to get too obsessed with the table when you haven’t even played a quarter of the games, I like where we are sitting now. Let’s see if we can hang about there as long as we can.”
“We just needed to win. We spoke about it during the weeks as it’s hard to keep being positive when the wins were not coming.
No case for the defence
There is never a shortage of pundits or punters who will tell you that Livingston can be as hard to watch as they are difficult to beat. Which rather misses the point.
Given that they are working with the smallest budget in the elite division, it would be unrealistic for Davie Martindale’s side to be regarded as the great entertainers.
As the manager has pointed out, it takes a lot of repetitive work on the training ground and discipline during games to make themselves the awkward opponents they usually are. Football is a results business and Martindale knows that, with the players they can afford to sign, thwarting opponents is more achievable than overwhelming them.
Here, though, they were uncharacteristically sloppy and, even more unusually, lacking in fight. Killie could have scored more but all three goals were preventable.
Danny Armstrong drove home the opener after David Watson had swung at and missed Corrie Ndaba’s cross, Kyle Vassell had a free header from Armstrong’s free-kick for the second and the Kilmarnock captain secured the outcome with a superb glancing header from Watson’s impressive delivery seconds after striking the crossbar.
Livi’s only attempt on target came from the penalty spot, with Sean Kelly converting for an equaliser after Brad Lyons caught Daniel Mackay as he attempted to clear the ball.
Vassell makes the difference
The veteran striker wore the armband and played a captain’s part in this success. His goals were the icing on the cake of an impressive individual performance which was all about serving the team.
Kilmarnock are greater than the sum of their parts and, even though a few of their starting XI weren’t at their best, the rest of their team-mates did enough to pull them through, with Vassell doing more than most to claim the points. Martindale paid the 30-year-old the ultimate tribute when he compared the target man to his former player – and current Scotland striker – Lyndon Dykes. “I thought Vassell was really good for Kilmarnock,” he said. “There were flashes of big Lyndon Dykes when he played for us: he was winning aerial duels, he was roughing up centre-halves and linking play.” And indeed he was. McInnes was equally impressed by Vassell’s contribution, which served to underline his reasons for choosing the forward to lead his team out in the first place, although he pointed out that it wasn’t a faultless display. “I was disappointed he didn’t take the strike on when we were 1-0 up,” he said. “He tried to square it but I like my centre-forward to put his foot through it there. “Every manager wants their strikers to score goals and he’s up to four now. It’s important to have the front line scoring goals. “He is so important to us, just as he was at the back end of last season. It will be key to keep him and the likes of Marley Watkins fit.”
