The news this week that Kilmarnock had been nominated as the worst place in Scotland to live might have broken its luckless residents had their football team still been stuck in their long, early season winless rut.
Fortunately, though, things are looking up for Allan Johnston's side, who travel to Inverness tomorrow in search of their third victory in as many games.
"The boys have a bit of confidence, now, a bit of belief," said Johnston. "That's what a couple of results does. But they've been playing well and we've not been far away. That's what we've been trying to say to them. It's been good to turn that into wins and good performances."
Kris Boyd, the rejuvenated striker, has stolen the headlines with his goals, but the two wins - against Ross County and Hearts - have been built on two clean sheets. And Boyd himself has made a considerable contribution to such solidity. "It's a whole team effort," said Johnston. "You can see the strikers working back in. I think that's what a lot of people noticed last week with Boydy coming back in the last five minutes of the game. It's not just your defence, it's a whole team effort. That's how you get results."
The manager has also been putting in the hours off the field, several of them of them on Tuesday. Johnston made the slog from Ayrshire up to the Caledonian Stadium to watch Saturday's opponents take on Dundee United in the Scottish League Cup. "It was a fair trek," he conceded. "When you get the chance to go see a team yourself you've got to take it. You can see they are a threat, especially the players they've got going forward. You always learn something and hopefully it pays dividends."
There was good news for, too, from the medical room. Darren Barr left the field on a stretcher last week after what looked like nasty knock to his neck. He was pictured after the match wearing a brace, but Johnston was delighted with how quickly the centre-back has recovered. "He was in the next day," the Kilmarnock manager revealed. "It's no surprise to see him out there back training, because that's the kind of lad he is. He got a right bang to his neck so we weren't taking any chances. It's a big boost because he's a big player for us. He's a leader. You can tell how much it means to him to play."
Kilmarnock are still waiting, though, for the results of the tests on Rabiu Ibrahim, who was taken to hospital after collapsing on the pitch two weeks ago. "We'll have to wait until next week, until the tests are completed, before we get advice from the medical staff," Johnston said.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article