KRIS BOYD refused to leave his house when hearing that Ayr United had won promotion to the Championship.

Chances are he won’t even venture out from under the covers next week should a demoralising season for Kilmarnock end with them placing the cherry on the gateau of what has been a season to savour for their local rivals.

Victory by way of a penalty shoot-out over Stranraer led to pitch invasions and scenes of such jubilation at Somerset Park. The only thing that could make life better for the followers of the Honest Men is Killie failing to overcome Falkirk in the Premiership play-off and bringing the Ayrshire derby back to the calendar on a regular basis for the first time in 23 years.

Boyd, an Ayrshireman as proud as they come, hears talk of hostilities recommencing next term as though it is already a fait accompli. Falkirk are the side with the momentum. Boyd and his team-mates only won two of their last 13 games in the regular season and looked like they had forgotten the way to goal in many of them.

The former Rangers striker is in no mood to give his noisy neighbours what they want, though. The thought of another derby match being rekindled is generally seen as something good for the Scottish game, but Boyd wants nothing to do with it.

“Ayr are in the Championship now and growing a bit of momentum,” he said. “I live there and they are quite confident they will be playing against us next season, but the only way we want an Ayrshire derby next season is in a cup competition.

“I didn’t leave the house on Sunday. I don’t think they were too confident at the time because it wasn’t the best of games, but they got the job done and they are up.”

Boyd does believe, however, that Kilmarnock can take a leaf out of Ayr’s book. The result is everything over this two-legged tie with Falkirk, which kicks off at the Westfield Stadium tomorrow night, and the method of achieving it is not particularly important.

“There wasn’t much between Ayr and Stranraer over the two games, but it doesn’t need to be the best performance of the season,” he said.

“You just need to find a way to come out on top on aggregate and stay in the division. It’s over to us to put on a performance now.

“The most important thing for us is that we stand up, we become men and we go and put on two performances that merits this club staying in the top division.”

Boyd played as Rangers were thrashed 6-1 by Motherwell over two legs in the Premiership play-off final last season. However, he denied that the club which finished 11th in the top flight possesses an advantage over their Championship opponents despite the greater number of games the lower league club has to play.

“We were beaten by a far better team,” he said. “You only have to look at Motherwell this season and the majority of their squad is the same. They probably underachieved in the league. You can see from the number of changes there have been at Rangers to see it was a club that needed tidied up and sorted. That’s happened.

“This is a great opportunity for Falkirk They’ve only lost four games this season. We find ourselves in this situation and we’ve said for numerous weeks that we’ve got better players than we’ve shown.

“I think we’ve shown that in glimpses, but if you can’t do it on a consistent basis then you find yourself in this situation. It’s up to us to reward, the manager and even ourselves. For your own livelihood and the sake of your family, we need to stay in this division.”

Relegation would possibly result in Boyd, who has a year of his contract still remaining, moving on to another Premiership club next season, but the player was adamant that his personal situation was insignificant in comparison with the plight of Kilmarnock.

“I’m not thinking of that,” he said. “The most important thing is the next two games and making sure we come out on top. “You only need to see what has happened in the last couple of months, there going to be big changes at this club. Either way, there are going to be changes. But it is easier to have an overhaul when you stay in the top division.”

Boyd, who has scored just six times for Kilmarnock in 31 appearances in all competitions this season, has netted some important goals for both club and country during the course of his career. If he can hit the target in the next two games and keep Kilmarnock up it will be as sweet as any of them.

“You go into game looking to score,” he said. “But the big thing is the team. If it takes an own goal or whatever, the main thing is that we keep this club in this division. It’s going to be a tough task, we know that, but we’re confident we can as long as we perform to the level we’ve shown we can. It starts with hard work. That should be a given and the rest comes from there.”