Steve Clarke not getting carried away as Kilmarnock hit top spot

Posted Thursday, December 06, 2018 by PA

Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke watched his side storm to the top of the Ladbrokes Premiership and then revealed his players were disappointed with their second-half display against Lvingston.

The Rugby Park outfit climbed to the summit following a 2-0 win over Livi after Greg Stewart netted a first-half double to take his season’s tally to seven.

Kilmarnock have now had just one defeat in their last 11 league games and currently sit one point ahead of Old Firm giants Rangers and Celtic.

But Clarke refused to get carried away by their ascent to top spot in December as he knows it is where you finish at the end of the campaign that counts.

Clarke said: “I’m still trying to get over the second half, to be honest, because I thought we slipped out of the game.

“Listen, it’s nice for the supporters – they’ll have enjoyed the night and looking at the league table but, for us, it’s just another three points.

“It wasn’t our best performance but it was a good win against a difficult opponent.

“I’ve got such an honest bunch that the feeling I got in the dressing room was that they were a little bit disappointed with their second-half performance.

“But they’ll look at the table and realise that if you work hard and are a good group of players you’ll pick up points in this league.

“And if you pick up enough points then sometimes you get quite close to the summit. But there’s nobody getting carried away. We’ve got an awful lot of work to do.

“At the end of the season we can tally up the points and see who’s where and decide if it’s been a good season or not. But in December it’s difficult to do that as there are so many games to come.”

Kilmarnock defender Kirk Broadfoot was stretchered off following a collision with his goalkeeper Daniel Bachmann and Clarke hopes he’ll be fine for Saturday’s clash at Celtic.

He said: “Hopefully it’s not too serious as I’m down to the bare bones with Stuart Findlay. But Gary Dicker has the know how to play centre back if need be. It was an unfortunate collison.”

Livingston manager Gary Holt admits they were second best.

Holt said: “We’re well known for scoring from set-pieces, but we lost the first goal to one and that was really disappointing. You look to people to do their jobs and go in where it hurts, but we let their man make the near-post run way too easily.

“As for the second goal? It comes from our free-kick and you can’t defend that happening. It’s just not good enough.

“But I’m the manager and I take responsibility for picking the team. I made changes to give a few guys their chance and they didn’t take it.”