Kilmarnock staged a fantastic late recovery
last night with a victory that owed as much
to their own goalscorers as it did to Brian
Winter, the referee. The official changed
the face of the match with the controversial
dismissal of Christian Kalvenes, the Dundee
United defender, after 76 minutes for a
questionable foul on Stevie Naismith with
the visiting team leading 1-0 through Noel
Hunt.
Kilmarnock took advantage with a
deflected equaliser by Willie Gibson barely
three minutes later before Colin Nish
appeared to get the faintest of touches to
Frazer Wright’s drive in the 87th minute to
claim the victory.
With the confidence of a draw at the home
of Celtic, the champions, fresh in their
minds, Kilmarnock opened with a
forward-thinking 4-3-3 system aimed at
utilising the darting runs of Naismith on
the left. In contrast, Dundee United’s 4-5-1
formation may well have stemmed the flow of
goals conceded but it too readily starves
their attack of numbers.
In a pretty uneventful opening period,
both teams surrendered possession all too
easily under pressure from pressing
opposition midfield and it took until the
20th minute for the first opportunity to
arise with Kilmarnock close to scoring.
Rhian Dodds’s near-post corner kick saw
Nish, the towering Kilmarnock striker, come
away from his marker and direct a header
that would have found the inside of a post
had it not been for Morgaro Gomis, the
United midfield player, guarding the
upright.
Naismith nodded casually and carelessly
wide from eight yards ten minutes later as
the home side ground out the better of the
rare threats to the goals.
In a rare foray forward, it was the
visiting team who almost provided the
breakthrough. Craig Conway’s incisive
left-wing run saw him skip over a rather
wild lunge by David Lilley, the the
Kilmarnock defender, inside the box. The
midfield player’s cut-back deserved better
than Noel Hunt’s weak, aimless and cleared
shot.
It did seemingly remind the United
midfield they had a duty to attack, though,
and in Barry Robson they have arguably the
best crosser of a ball in the league. His
left-foot pass was glanced by the head of
Hunt only a yard or so the wrong side of a
post with Alan Combe, the goalkeeper,
struggling.
Within four minutes of the restart Hunt
did score the goal that had earlier eluded
him. A mistake by Simon Ford, the Kilmarnock
defender, allowed Robson to run in on goal
at an acute angle. His cross found the
striker alone at the far post to tap in from
two yards with the home defence in disarray.
The mood of the home supporters did not
improve as the Ayrshire sky turned black
before unleashing a torrent of rain on the
fans in the front rows.
United’s numerical advantage in midfield
was paying dividends as an increasingly
desperate home team struggled to find a way
through a wall of players. A ferocious
effort by Wright, the defender, almost
restored parity, though, before the game was
turned on its head late on.
Kalvenes 77 mins
87 mins
