KILMARNOCK’S revival looks to be in full swing after the Rugby Park side continued their recent reversal in fortunes. This comfortable win over a Hamilton Accies side who fell victim to further Covid disruption ahead of kick-off consolidated their recent run of form with the hosts climbing up to seventh in the table.
After a miserable December when they lost five consecutive league games, it has been quite the turnaround. It was difficult to disagree with Alex Dyer’s observation that Accies “couldn’t live with us today.”
Much of that was down to the form of the impressive Greg Kiltie. The 23-year-old set the tone for the game in his 100th league appearance for the club when he dragged an early effort wide of the post before he came up with a goal in each half to keep the visitors firmly at arms length. It could easily have been more.
“We were comfortable all afternoon,” said Dyer. “Kiltie was excellent. He was brilliant and that triggered everyone else off. He’s a Killie, boy, he is one of their own and it is good to see. Long may that continue.”
If the last few outings have been more conducive to a pleasant weekend, Dyer was insistent that there was no real ebbing of morale or belief in the trying days of last month. It has meant, however, that a number of players with contracts up at the end of the season may have to wait until the club knows it is on solid ground before there is an offer. Kiltie would be among them.
“What happens in that changing room is the most important thing,” said Dyer. “They have never doubted me and I have never doubted them. We work hard and it is about staying together and believing in what we want to achieve. A lot of players are up in the summer and once we know where we are at as a club then we will sort it out then but I won’t be giving anyone contracts,” he said. “They have to wait, to dig in and see where we finish.”
Hamilton found themselves up against it before a ball had been kicked after defender Aaron Martin had to be removed from the squad at noon. Contacted by track and trace, Accies were deprived of the services of Martin who will now require to self-isolate for the next 10 days.
“Everything was done [on Saturday morning]. We’d worked out the team, worked out the set-plays and when my phone rang at 11.30am,” said Accies manager Brian Rice. “Aaron is a big player for me. We were missing our two main centre-halves from the last two clean sheets. Brian Easton was injured last week and came off.
“Aaron and Brian have held the back three together. To lose the two of them coming here was a big, big loss and we saw that at the second goal. I don’t think Jamie would have done that if Aaron had been playing alongside him.”
Despite Kilmarnock’s grip on the game, the visitors clattered the bar with a Hakeen Odoffin header immediately before the hosts opened the scoring. That it was an untidy strike will have meant little to Dyer as Youssouf Mulumbu’s effort was deflected off of the boot of Kiltie to wrongfoot Hamilton keeper Kyle Gourlay and end up in the back of the net.
Kilmarnock, who had had two penalty calls waved away by referee Grant Irvine who was making his first top flight appearance, felt it was vindication for the pressure they had exerted on the opening stages of the game.
The industrious Kiltie had an effort blocked by Hamilton as Killie looked to turn the screw and there was always a feeling of inevitability about the second goal. If the first was scrappy the second was significantly more polished as Kiltie collected from Brandon Haunstrup and took his time before curling it into the net.
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