Quite frankly our performances in the last five games against Kilmarnock have been nothing short of dismal. There are various reasons for this, which we will go into shortly, but the worrying thing is that there seems to be nothing we can do to change things. To put it bluntly and without wanting to adopt a nasal whining play-ground tone, they’re bigger than us; they push us around. Also it is important to realise that this statement is not being offered as an excuse, merely an attempted explanation. When we play Kilmarnock, they win the physical battles. Not just the crunching fifty-fifty’s but the shoulder tackles and crucially the battle for headers which does so much to decide who has possession and where. In the last meeting between the teams we had a corner in the last minute – ‘big’ Jim Hamilton who would merely be average in the Killie side was already subbed – and we didn’t have parity in any more than one out of five or six marking match ups.
The problem is made even worse now that Jim Jeffries actually has his side playing decent football as well and in Kris Boyd they have a talented striker who is surely destined for a move to bigger things (and international football as a result probably). Last year it was annoying to lose to them because they dominated us. When they beat us this season at Rugby Park it was because they dominated us and then tore us apart with quick passing football and excellent movement.
So what can be done? Well firstly it should be stressed that Kilmarnock are beatable. Until they defeated Aberdeen last week they had gone on a long run without a win so they are by no means an invincible juggernaut. Some re-organisation of the defence may be a start – Kinniburgh was ripped apart at Rugby Park and Craigan, unless he’s taking a shy, never seems to play well against them. With Corrigan fit and healthy again we do have options at that area of the pitch but he does not exactly negate their aerial threat. Steve McDonald, a beanpole centre half, may be the future answer but it would be a brave move by Butcher to throw him in so suddenly. That said, nothing else has worked against Killie for a while, a change might be worth the risk. Midfielder Alan McCormack returned from injury to play for the reserves mid-week but this contest might be too early for him.
Up front it is likely we’ll get chances although until Hamilton and McDonald get back on song together it is hard to be too confident going into games. Hopefully this will be the day things get back on track but we’ll have to be content with slow progress in a 2-2 draw.