JUST over a month ago, Mark McGhee was receiving the Manager of the Month award for December from league sponsors, Ladbrokes.

Many more performances like this and he might soon find himself topping the bookies’ sack race market. Certainly, after seeing Kilmarnock leapfrog his side in the table and shunt them into the relegation play-off place through second-half goals from Greg Kiltie and Craig Slater, the trip to bottom-placed Dundee United on Tuesday evening becomes all the more important.

That is the kind of match in which you really do need your supporters to be 100 per cent behind you. Unfortunately, such backing seems, to use common footballing parlance, a big ask for now.

Make no mistake. The heat is slowly being turned up on McGhee by the Motherwell faithful.

There had been a fair amount of grumbling over the standard of the team’s displays in recent weeks, but little outright anger. That appears to be changing.

Motherwell lacked any threat in the opening 45 minutes and were booed off by their own supporters with the scoreline goalless. By the time Andrew Dallas had blown the final whistle and set the seal on a six-game winless run containing five defeats, it was impossible to keep emotions in check.

With only 376 Kilmarnock fans bothering to turn up, the loudest noise of the afternoon undoubtedly came when Motherwell were jeered up the tunnel.

“It was certainly the poorest performance since I have been here,” conceded McGhee. “It lacked energy and real purpose until late in the second half.

“The danger is now the players could suffer from a lack of confidence and the focus has to be on making sure they go out against Dundee United believing they can win. I thought it would be a really good result for us if we didn’t lose today. Losing was a body blow.

“We are trying to put things right and today was a slip back into the way it was. It is not all going to become right in a few weeks.”

It certainly wasn’t right for this encounter. Motherwell barely created any chances. Stephen McManus put a header wide at the start of the second period, Marvin Johnson blazed into the side netting and Louis Moult hit the bar with a header in stoppage-time. That was about it.

Right from the off, Kilmarnock – watched from the stand by Graham Alexander, fresh from being interviewed for the vacant managerial position – dominated.

Kiltie saw an early effort go just wide after taking a deflection off Steven Hammell with Tope Obadeyi forcing Connor Ripley into a good low save just after the quarter-hour mark.

Ripley, on loan from Middlesbrough, is a goalkeeper with potential. He produced two excellent saves in quick succession from well-taken free-kicks from Slater before the interval, but was left exposed by his defence just once too often in the 56th minute.

Steven Smith delivered a cross from the left side and Kiltie was left alone at the back post to force the ball home.

Six minutes later, Killie put themselves in a comfortable position. Slater won possession from Kieran Kennedy and advanced to 22 yards out before beating Ripley to his right with a well-directed low shot.

Lee McCulloch, still serving as caretaker, was thrilled by the win, but still refuses to put himself forward for the manager’s job.

“It is just a day at a time for me,” he said. “I don’t know what happens now. I enjoy the training, but it’s matchdays that are quite nerve-racking.”

The only bright spot of the day for Motherwell was that James McFadden signed until the summer following the collapse of his proposed transfer to Philadelphia Union. Even so, McGhee opted not to bring him off the bench.

“I love it here and it’s the only club in Scotland I’d consider at this stage,” remarked McFadden.

Oh, James. Where did it all go wrong?