Kilmarnock suffered capital punishment yesterday after losing 3-1 to Hearts as the Premiership emerged from its World Cup winter break.
First-half goals from Josh Ginnelly and Lawrence Shankland put the Jambos firmly in the driving seat at Tynecastle.
Defender Ash Taylor pulled one back for Killie but hopes of a dramatic comeback were dashed a couple of minutes before the end when Shankland converted a penalty.
Killie assistant manager Tony Docherty faced the media afterwards and covered a range of topics following a result which signalled a 10th league defeat of the season.
Reflections on the game...
“I think we gave ourselves too much to do. When you come to Tynecastle, it has got to be a 90-minute performance, it can't be a 45-minute one.
“You know what it’s like at places like this. You can’t give them any impetus and I thought we gave them that. We weren’t competitive enough in the first half.
“But we got back in at half-time, addressed some of the issues and changed the shape and then I thought it was a strong 45-minute performance which should have got us something out the game.
“The players are an honest bunch and when we went out second half, I think we took a lot of belief from the shape. The front two definitely worked, we passed the ball better and looked like the dominant team.
“You can feel it when you get the goal. You can hear the crowd and you feel it’s going to go our way. There was that belief that we could get the next goal.”
The decision to penalise Joe Wright for handball which led to late penalty...
“I don’t know what handball is any more. My take is Joe is going back the way, he is nudged by Lawrence and his arms go up in the air and the ball hits him.
“Yes, his arms are in an unnatural position but for a reason. It certainly hits his hand but I think you need to look at the extenuating circumstances.
“When you look at defenders, they are putting their arms behind their back. That would never happen in our day.
“You need to educate the players when it comes to the rules of handball but when something like that happens, how can you coach that? You can’t.
“I can’t look at VAR’s performance or the referee’s performance. I can only look at ours and if we turn a 45-minute performance into a 90-minute performance, that will get us points and up the league.”
Killie's impact throughout the game at attacking set-pieces...
“I thought we were really strong. It was something we had worked on all week and managed to score a goal with a free-kick we worked on. We were a threat.”
On striker Innes Cameron pulling up with a hamstring injury during the pre-match warm-up...
“It’s difficult. Obviously you set up all week and do your preparation for the game and to lose the big man like that is difficult.
“We will get the medics to assess Innes but when you do a hamstring, it’s normally when you’re running and opening up.
“But he did it when he was striking the ball so that’s a wee bit of a concern. He’s in a bit of pain so we will get a scan done but it doesn’t look great at the moment.”
Forward Bobby Wales, 17, starting the game at a moment's notice as a result of Cameron's injury...
“Young Bobby has been doing fantastic in the youths and got his opportunity, and it is great to see a young player coming through.
“Bobby equipped himself well playing in that system [4-2-3-1] and then when we went to a front two, with Christian Doidge, I thought he did well and looked a threat.”
Attacker Scott Robinson's return after almost a year sidelined with a foot injury...
“Robbo is a real positive and I thought his performance alongside Bobby and Christian was a real positive.
“We need to be more of a goal threat in the second half of the season and Robbo coming back in is almost like a new signing.
“He’s a striker who is proven in the Premiership and he gives us the option of being a front two which we have maybe not had before.”
On facing Motherwell and potentially moving the fixture to Rugby Park if Fir Park can't be fixed up following damage as a result of the big freeze...
“I know the temperatures are to get up so hopefully that helps but we don’t know the situation at Motherwell.
“I would hope we could take our second-half performance into the Motherwell game on Friday night.
“It’s a good suggestion if we could do that [flip the fixture when Motherwell are due to visit Rugby Park in February]. We’re desperate for the game to be on and want to play after that second-half performance.”
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