Kilmarnock awarded little merit for testing exercise

Football Writer

Monday 8 August 2011

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Graeme Macpherson

Kilmarnock should have been playing a league match against Rangers but the Ibrox club’s decision to use their opt-out pass to instead play a lucrative friendly against Chelsea left Kenny Shiels’ side with a free weekend.

Blackburn Rovers were therefore summoned north to provide glamorous opposition but the Kilmarnock public were not convinced; only 2283 were sufficiently enthused to journey out to Rugby Park.The Kilmarnock players, of course, did not have the option of staying at home, instead using the exercise to test themselves against superior talents while keeping their fitness up ahead of a return to league action on Sunday against Hibernian.Blackburn eventually prospered 4-1 -- not that the score was of any real significance -- but Liam Kelly, the Kilmarnock midfielder, still felt it was worthwhile.“We were supposed to be playing Rangers, but it was better to play a friendly as opposed to having a break,” he said. “The goals we lost were sloppy and mistakes of our own, but it was a good workout. It’s better to make the mistakes in a friendly and you use these games to try things. In spells, we played well.”Kelly spent much of his 45-minute outing tailing David Dunn around the park. The one-time England internationalist, at 31 years old, may be approaching the autumn of his career but still carried the look of someone used to operating at a higher level, as Kelly could testify.“David’s a great player and facing him was a great test,” he said. “You see things during a game that you wouldn’t see on the TV, such as their movement off the ball and their workrate. They worked so hard to close us down and put real pressure on us.”Dunn wasn’t the only visiting player to impress. David Goodwillie made his Blackburn debut as a second-half substitute and had an immediate impact, scoring Blackburn’s fourth goal. His new team-mates are impressed by what they’ve seen so far.“David certainly knows where the back of the net is and, if he can translate that to the Premiership, we’ll have a player on our hands,” said Jason Roberts, who scored two of Blackburn’s first-half goals, Dunn netting the other. “The ability is there and, hopefully, it will shine through.”For another Scot in Blackburn colours it proved to be an unfortunate afternoon, Grant Hanley putting through his own net to give Kilmarnock an early lead. Roberts, though, remains an admirer.“He is someone the club have had high hopes about for a long time and he just keeps progressing,” he said. “We have some good players in his position, but you can see he is becoming ready.”

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Kilmarnock awarded little merit for testing exercise

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