RORY McKENZIE has revealed how the personal touch from interim manager Lee McCulloch has helped to rebuild some sense of self-belief in Kilmarnock’s players ahead of their return to the scene of a recent Scottish Cup disaster.
With Billy Davies understood to be in talks with the Rugby Park side over their managerial position and Ally McCoist also being mentioned as a candidate, McCulloch’s reign looks set to last just 90 minutes at Ibrox, of all places, this afternoon.
Kilmarnock were easily despatched by a 3-0 scoreline there in the fourth round of the cup last season and enter today’s fifth round encounter on a real low in the wake of the 1-0 league defeat to Hamilton Academical last weekend, which forced head coach Gary Locke to fall on his sword.
McCulloch, who left Rangers to begin his coaching career in Ayrshire last summer, admits much of his work this week has focused on patching up a dressing-room broken by recent events with McKenzie revealing that one of his earliest moves involved meeting every player individually to spell out his expectations.
“We had a meeting on Monday morning at which he said how he wanted to work,” said McKenzie. “He then met with all the boys one-on-one and just got their thoughts. It was really good.
“It was just about being positive. He said he didn’t know how long he was in charge for, but that he’d try and do the best he could.
“Last week against Hamilton was terrible. There wasn’t much football played. I don’t think we ever got going.
“It wasn’t as bad as rock bottom, but there was a real realisation that we are in a lot of trouble in the league if we don’t get our fingers out.
“So far, he’s been able to turn a negative into a positive. It’s not easy when a manager gets sacked, but he’s done a good job in bring all the boys together.
“It has actually been a really good week.”
The proof of the pudding will come this afternoon, though. McKenzie concedes Kilmarnock failed to make any kind of impression when losing to their Ladbrokes Championship rivals last term and, although they are hardly likely to go out all guns blazing, believes they have developed a more dependable plan of attack this time round.
“I played at Ibrox last season, but you know how that went,” he said. “We didn’t really have a go that day and it was a poor performance. It’s been a common theme.
“We’ve worked on a gameplan this week and need to apply it.
“I think we do need to have more of a go, but we’ve obviously seen a lot of them on the TV. If teams go there with a good gameplan and try and catch them on the counter, they can be beaten.
“I think it’s about finding the balance between going gung-ho and sitting back.
“We saw St Johnstone win at Ibrox this season. They played really well that night with pace on the counter attack. I hope we can do the same.”
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