On Saturday, just before 5pm, there were around four thousand of us shaking our heads as we came to terms with the pointless result.
The general feeling was that it was a needless loss. We had not played well but given that we were leading after an hour there was an element of carelessness not to take anything from the match. McCall’s post match comment put the loss down to bad luck - "You don't want to sit in at home and accept a point but to lose it with the last kick of the game, when you see it - it just bobbles over Gunnar and there's nothing we can do about it”.
In fact it was only the thickness of the bar that saved us moments before the final act when Eremenko’s lob gave warning that we could lose the game. We had our good fortune at that moment but threw the game back into the melting pot with a cavalier charge that left the back door open. Recognition that Kilmarnock had the better of the second half might have pointed to a less reckless rush but that dawning came too late. McCall added,” I think a draw would have been a fair result” – it was a pity that he did not accept that outcome as the clock approached 95 minutes.
The game ended a terrific run of home results. Since the loss to Celtic at the beginning of December we’ve beaten St Mirren, St Johnstone, Partick Thistle, Hearts, Inverness and Ross County and drawn with Aberdeen (after conceding a goal to a last minute hand ball), a series that has made us strong contenders for second place. One loss in eight hardly gives cause for complaint and the team must now look forward to trips to Inverness and Paisley and the pre-split section of the campaign draws to a close.
Details of the last five games will be revealed in the next few days. We’ll probably have three homes, two aways and the possibility of a of a final day game against Aberdeen for the runner up spot. There’s a busy week ahead.
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