KRIS BOYD netted his first goal of 2019 as Killie cruised to a very comfortable win against ten-man St Johnstone, who had Jason Kerr sent off when the damage had already been done.
The Ayrshire club are battling it out for a European spot and they eased into the top six fixture split with a victory that could and should have yielded more goals than just Boyd's penalty, which followed a first half own goal from Chris Kane.
Indeed, after Kerr had been shown a second yellow card, if it wasn't for Saints keeper Zander Clark, the damage could have been very bad indeed for the Perth side, who were timid from the start yesterday at Rugby Park.
The Ayrshire side's manager, Steve Clarke, was full of praise for veteran striker Boyd, who enjoyed his recall yesterday.
He said: "It was a dominant performance from start to finish and it was a well deserved three points.
"Kris Boyd is one of a number of players who have had to be really patient this season, but sometimes when you are a goal scorer and you lose the chance to play, you lose that little rhythm so it was nice to see him get on the scoresheet albeit with a penalty.
"He’s a key part of what we here and it was important for him to get that goal."
Killie should have taken a fifth minute lead when Chris Burke floated a delightful, chipped cross straight on to captain Kris Boyd's head, but the veteran striker nodded against the bar with Zander Clark well beaten.
And it came as no surprise when Killie took a slightly bizarre opening goal in the 17th minute when another dangerous Rory McKenzie corner was turned into his own goal by Kane, under pressure from Gary Dicker. Kane didn't know much about it and neither did his bemused keeper Clark.
It took a fine save from Clark to prevent the home side doubling their advantage four minutes before the interval when McKenzie unleashed a long range effort which the keeper tipped over the bar.
The respite was very short lived though when ref Bobby Madden awarded a penalty two minutes later when Boyd's header from an inviting Chris Burke cross clearly struck the hand of Kerr, who was also booked. The 35-year-old easily converted from the spot.
Wright remarkably opted to use all three subs at half time which was a measure of his disappointment of his team's first half display. Danny Swanson, Liam Gordon and Blair Alston replaced Michael O'Halloran, Scott Tanser and Callum Hendry.
Boyd had the ball in the net again 11 minutes after the restart, but from an offside position, with Saints' three subs not appearing to be making much of an impact. And the visitors' task was made considerably more difficult when Kerr was shown a second yellow card for holding back McKenzie, who has zipped past him on the wing.
From then on, it was damage limitation for the Perth side, who were content with not suffering any more and they saved from a real hammering by keeper Clark who made save after save as Killie enjoyed a shooting practice exercise against them.
Manager Wright, who also revealed they are resigned to losing captain Joe Shaughnessy next season after contract talks broke down, had no complaints about the outcome.
He said: "It was Jekyll and Hyde from Wednesday night’s performance to this. We had no energy about us. They dominated from the first whistle and we didn’t impose ourselves on the game. There was a lack of tempo, energy and competitiveness about our play and we got what we deserved."
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 hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel