The league table doesn’t lie but Greg Kiltie still maintains the true qualities of Kilmarnock will shine though come the end of the season.
The resurgent Rugby Park club host struggling Partick Thistle this weekend as they continue their fight to drag themselves out of second-bottom spot and avoid a nerve-jangling relegation play-off.
Kiltie and his Kilmarnock team-mates showed just what they are capable of last Saturday as the demolished fellow strugglers Hamilton 4-0 at New Douglas Park to move to within four points of third-bottom Accies.
Another three points this weekend would really up the ante on their rivals in perils at the wrong end of the table and Kiltie, who scored twice in the four goal rout of Hamilton, believes such eye-catching performances makes the Ayrshire club’s predicament all the more baffling.
“We’ve not won 4-0 all season and after we beat St Johnstone recently, you think ‘where did this all go wrong?’,” said the 19-year-old winger. “When we’re capable of playing like that, we really shouldn’t be in the position we are in.
“Everyone is putting everything in and hopefully we can stay up. It’s a massive club and I don’t think it belongs anywhere other than in the top division so hopefully we can stay there. Look at the facilities here. They’d be wasted in the lower leagues. All the boys want to stay up whether they are out of contract or not. Who wants a relegation on their cv?”
Kiltie has clearly enjoyed working under Kilmarnock’s new manager, Lee Clark, and the positivity of the man in charge has created a feel-good factor among the galvanised players.
“He’s been brilliant since he came in and you see that in the performances,” added Kiltie. “He came into the dressing room and said he believes in us and that he knows we are capable of winning. When you hear your manager saying that, you believe it and then you go out on the park and it shows. He put out a really positive formation last week. We needed to win and the boys just attacked and scored four goals.
“The whole team playing well just helps every player. Everybody has been more intense and we’ve been going into games believing we are going to win which is a big difference from earlier on in the season.”
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