With their Premiership play-off opponents on a high after the dramatic way in which they earned their place in the final yesterday’s meeting with Dundee United was a fixture Kilmarnock could have done without.

Of course there was a desire to get back to winning games after a sequence that had brought just two wins in their previous 12 matches.

However with fewer people in Rugby Park – 2702 in all - than appeared to be queuing around the Falkirk Stadium desperate to acquire tickets for these forthcoming fixtures, this was a match for which there was little appetite compared with the frenzied enthusiasm that is likely to greet two of the country’s oldest clubs as they battle for the one remaining top flight spot.

Lee Clark, Kilmarnock’s manager, obviously could not quite go so far as to say this match did not matter to him, but actions spoke louder than words as he left out a number of key players and made further changes as he grew concerned about the risk of suspensions for others.

“It’s obviously disappointing but the bigger picture for us was always Thursday. That’s why we left so many players out. That’s why I had to make the decisions at 2-1 to take the two senior lads off,” he said.

“You want to win every game but Thursday and Sunday are too big for us to take any risks. I hate losing the game, but I would have felt worse if (Conrad) Balatoni or (Lee) Hodson had got another yellow card there today. We have a certain number of players that we can call on a rely on and they’re going to have to be the ones to do the job over the two legs.

“We wanted to produce a result today as well, so we’re disappointed, but all that matters is Thursday and Sunday,” he reiterated.

“When I saw the players before the game I could see they understand what we’ve got to do. We have to just get on with Thursday. It was a difficult balancing act today in terms of what I did and didn’t do. We got ourselves in a good position but with the exception of one or two not many of them have given us a problem in terms of selection.”

To that extent the line-up he put out yesterday offered room both to take a lift from the outcome had the youngsters managed to capitalise on the 2-1 lead they earned in the opening half, or dismiss any significance some might seek to draw from this particular result if, as transpired, they failed to do so.

What Clark is counting on is that the timing of the rest he has been able to give the majority of the squad will mean they have the right mix of match sharpness and liveliness in the legs to combat the sort of enthusiasm Falkirk have brought to the play-offs after they similarly benefited from earning themselves a nine day playing break when claiming second spot in the Championship.

“The team will be completely different in terms of personnel and hopefully the freshness that they’ll have will make a difference,” said Clark.

“That was why I was loathe to put any of the senior players on. I wanted them to have a complete break. If I had the numbers in the squad in terms of availability I probably wouldn’t have even had the likes of (Greg) Kiltie and (Gary) Dicker on the bench because one thing we need about us is freshness on Thursday.”

He remains, as he must, outwardly confident that as the team used to operating at the higher level, Kilmarnock will have too much quality for Falkirk to cope with over two legs, but he knows that will only be a factor if they match their lower league opponents in terms of energy and commitment and, to that end, he clearly feels ever more vindicated in the emphasis he has placed on conditioning since his arrival at Rugby Park in February.

“I’ve got belief in the players,” said Clark.

“We’ve got to have the high fitness levels we’ve had, we’ve got to have fight, we’ve got to have determination, we’ve got to keep going to the very last whistle of the second game because they certainly will and if we do all that we’ll give ourselves a good chance. If we come short on any of that then Falkirk will definitely take over the tie because that’s what they’ve got in abundance.”