Should Aberdeen win at Ibrox and Celtic drop points at Motherwell tonight, then Kilmarnock could move into pole position in the Ladbrokes Premiership table with a home win over Livingston.
That scenario would have delighted Gary Holt just a few months ago but the Killie diehard, a member of the 1997 Scottish Cup-winning team, is now in charge of the West Lothian club and he’ll be anxious to put a spoke in the wheels of manager Steve Clarke’s well-oiled machine.
The hosts, currently in third place, have lost only one of their last 10 matches but Clarke is taking nothing for granted.
“People talk about Kilmarnock being under the radar – although I’m not sure that’s true because there are some who tend to talk about us a lot – but Livingston definitely have been,” he said.
“They keep being written off. They lose a game, they get written off. But they’re only six points behind us in the league, the performances I’ve seen from them have all been very consistent and it’ll be a tough game for us.”
Kilmarnock are just two points behind leaders Rangers but Clarke will not allow his squad to rest on their laurels.
“You only have to look at Hibs; they had a great start to the season and have now had a poor run,” he said.
“Hearts also started the season great and are also now having a sticky run so you know that in football, as soon as you relax or take your eye off the ball, it can come back to bite you.”
Clarke is confident, though, that the floodlight failure which twice interrupted Saturday’s 3-0 victory over Hibernian will not happen again.
“They’ve been working on the lights all day Monday,” he revealed. “Being an ex-tradesman myself, I know it can be tough to find an electrical fault.
“The lights were on pretty much all day Monday as they looked to trace and find a reason and I’d be very surprised if there was a repeat of the episode.”
Killie will be hoping to shut out their opponents for a fourth successive match tonight, with centre-back Scott Boyd admitting that he enjoys preventing goals more than he enjoys scoring them.
“Being a defender, a clean sheet gives me more pride than a goal and the team in general has been doing really well collectively in that sense,” he grinned.
“Livingston are no pushovers – they’re well organised and a tough side. They’re also up for a battle and we’ll need to be at our best.”
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