Kris Boyd is hurting as Kilmarnock languish in the Premiership relegation play-off position, but he knows his own anguish pales into insignificance compared to those whose jobs rely on the club maintaining their place in Scotland’s top-flight.
The financial results released by the club last week – showing a loss of £724,406 for the year 2014/15 – have cast an even longer shadow over the staff at Rugby Park who are fearing for their livelihoods as the team teeters on the brink of demotion.
“I don’t know exactly what’s been going on,” Boyd said. “But what I will say is that no matter what the figures are, they will be a lot worse if we go down.
“For us, you need to use it in a positive manner, and make sure that that figure doesn’t get any worse in terms of what we can control on the pitch – getting victories that can keep us in the top league in Scotland.
“You don’t see many places nowadays where there are positive stories regarding workplaces, and I think it will be the exact same again here.
“It’s not been great at Kilmarnock for the last seven or eight years. The club have flirted with relegation and there have been administration stories, but it’s never happened. You don’t want it to happen now, so for us as players, the main thing is to go out on the pitch, do our best, and do the things that we can control to help the club.
“For us, it’s not just a matter for the players or the management staff, it’s for the whole town of Kilmarnock. I might be wrong, but I’d think that the club probably has the most employees in Kilmarnock now, and it’s one of the main interests of the town.
“We just want to stay in the Premiership this season and then, if the manager gets his way, I think there will be a turnover in the summer and I’m sure the club can get back to where it should be—challenging for a top six place.”
As Motherwell found last year, Premiership status counts for little when people are assessing who might come out on top in a two-legged playoff between the team that finishes eleventh in the table and one from the division below.
While Boyd didn’t enjoy his Rangers side being turned over in emphatic style by the unfancied Fir Park outfit at the time, he takes inspiration from the fact that in football, size isn’t everything.
He said: “It’s not as easy as that for the teams below you. You do have an advantage on them, and I feel as if we have a good enough squad to keep the team in the league.
“It was the exact same last year, people look at the size of clubs involved in it. Rangers were the team in the play-off last year and people said they would just steamroller it and Motherwell would go down.
“It was a doing in the playoff final, but what I will say is that a lot of hard work went into the Queen of the South games and the Hibs games, which can take its toll.
“For whoever the teams are in that playoff, they are going to have to come through four games before they get to face the team who has finished second-bottom of the Premiership, so it’s not easy for them.
“Since the manager has come in there has been a big improvement in performances at both ends of the field in terms of defending and attacking as a team. We’re a lot more organised and I think that’s been shown in our performances.
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