It was a day of protests and points. The brassed off Kilmarnock fans made their point by telling the club’s board member and former chairman, Michael Johnston, where to go, The Killie players, meanwhile, plundered all three points with a deserved win which propelled them from 11th in the table to sixth. In the end, everybody went home happy.
“The league is crazy,” said the Kilmarnock manager, Lee Clark of the topsy-turvy nature of the Ladbrokes Premiership . “I’m just really, really pleased. We’re making ourselves hard to beat and we’re also bringing a goal threat. There’s a good consistency in the performances. We’re in the top six but we have a tough game at Aberdeen on Tuesday and we know the league is going to swing around every weekend because it’s so tight. We won’t be getting carried away.”
The fare on offer in the opening exchanges was fairly modest and there wasn’t much to rouses the senses. Cameron Kerr’s shuddering challenge on Jordan Jones certainly got the locals on their feet, though. The clatter could have been heard on Ailsa Craig and as the Kilmarnock fans bayed for the blood of the Dundee man, Kerr was shown the yellow card, much to the howling disgust of the restless natives. After that decision, Crawford Allan, the referee, found himself lower in the popularity stakes than the Killie chairman. Well, perhaps not that low. The first of two vocal demonstrations against the Rugby Park kingpin took place on 18 minutes but within three minutes of that, the home supporters had something more jovial to shout about.
A cross was deflected into the path of Rory McKenzie and he plonked a tidy, curling finish in off the post to end Kilmarnock’s dry spell of three games without a goal.
That breakthrough certainly energised the hosts and with Jones showing plenty of lively industry out on the left, Dundee found themselves on the back foot. “Jordan played very well and I believe I can get even more out of him,” added Clark of the 22-year-old midfielder who moved to Ayrshire in the summer after being released by Middlesbrough. “He can add goals to his game and if he does that we’ll have a hell of a player on our hands.”
The visitors did manage to muster cause a jittery moment for the Kilmarnock defence on the half hour. A thump into the box was nodded down by Craig Wighton and Danny Williams, who had trotted on as an early substitute, saw his snap shot safely gathered by Jamie MacDonald.
At the other end, Nathan Tyson found himself in space in the area but, from Gary Dicker’s inviting cross, he could only glance a header over the bar.
The sprightly Jones also had a batter on goal blocked as the hosts finished the first period with plenty of purpose.
They started the second in a similar fashion and Tyson almost delivered a telling blow within a couple of minutes of the resumption when his shot on the turn rattled the bar on its way over.
After that escape, Dundee had an opportunity to capitalise on their good fortune moments later but Marcus Haber’s back post header floated narrowly wide of the target.
Kevin Holt then tried to plough his own furrow towards goal but his surging, twisting run ended with a strike that whistled past the intended target.
The match was finely balanced and Dundee, who hadn’t lost in five previous visits to this neck of the woods, continued to winkle out some openings. Williams nipped in behind the Kilmarnock defence and cut the ball back for the lurking Wighton but his jab was just the wrong side of the post.
Kilmarnock were eager to nab the second goal which would stave off Dundee’s menacing advances and it arrived on 70 minutes. Steven Smith rolled a low pass across the area and Coulibaly side footed a finish high into the net with total authority.
Tyson and McKenzie both brought good saves out of Scott Bain as they finished with a flourish before MacDonald produced a superb, instinctive, point blank block at the death to deny Williams a consolation.
“We were not at our best,” said the Dundee manager, Paul Hartley, after watching his side slither from sixth down to 10th. “The players have been excellent over the last five or six weeks but we were just off the pace today. I don’t have any complaints.”
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