Boss Dyer salutes emphatic Killie response

Posted Sunday, February 02, 2020 by PA

Kilmarnock manager Alex Dyer praised his players for not panicking after they came from behind to win 3-1 at home to Ross County.

A quickfire second-half double from Eamonn Brophy and a late header from Nicke Kabamba turned the game around after Iain Vigurs’ opener.

The win was Killie’s first since late November and Dyer hoped it would prove the turning point in his team’s season.

He said: “It was a good victory and one we deserved. I thought their goal came against the run of play and that was their first shot.

“We didn’t panic at half-time and we just had a quick chat. They were doing well and creating chances. It was nice to get a result.

“We could have had more goals but I am happy with what we got. We showed good character, every single one of them after going a goal down.

“The heads can drop when that happens but we dug in and kept doing what we were doing and we asked questions of them.

“I hope that is the turning point for us, but you never know. We will enjoy this before preparing again for Wednesday.”

County co-manager Stuart Kettlewell felt his players dropped their standards after recent encouraging performances.

He said: “The second-half performance was disappointing in a nutshell. We warned them about the pitfalls about coming out and being slack and not joined up.

“We saw that come to fruition in Kilmarnock’s favour. We put so much in over the last few games and it has been well documented the fixtures we had. But we gave them credit for what they did against Hearts, Celtic and Rangers away from home.

“We could have done things better in the first half here, but, in terms of what has gone before, we were well organised and it was a half-decent first 45 minutes.

“Second half the nature of the goals and how we become so disjointed, it flashes a sign of a soft centre and a sign of us going under a wee bit which is frustrating. We concede a goal and it should make us come out fighting but we felt we accepted our fate a little bit at 2-1.”