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Motherwell away, Fred


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Steve Clarke's post match comments....

Steve Clarke was thrilled with the heart shown by his Kilmarnock players in their 1-0 victory over Motherwell.

Stephen O'Donnell's goal proved to be enough to secure all three points at Fir Park and sees Killie leapfrog 'Well in the table.

Killie were forced to defend for long stages in the second period as the hosts pushed for an equaliser which never came. 

Injuries, illness and fatigue hit the squad this week with Aaron Tshibola sidelined along with Gordon Greer, Alan Power and the suspended Gary Dicker. 

Speaking after the match, Clarke said: "First half we probably shaded it, I thought we were decent.

"Motherwell were stronger second half, we looked a little bit jaded, especially towards the end, we couldn't get out. But we dug in and showed great resilience.

"The team is in a really good moment and they are working for every point they get. I'm pleased to get three points from here because it's a really difficult place to come."

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1 hour ago, mitch14 said:

Fantastic defensive display. Really impressive all game. Draw was probably a fairier result but we held on.

Quite a few dissapointing individual displays in there. A frustrating one for Jones doing his mix of getting into amazing positions then wasting it. Broadfoot somehow had an amazing game and a complete stinker at the same time... Its funny, but I could do without him noising up away fans... He' going to get sent off. Mulumbu was strong and SoD was great.

What I liked today was that we had a few folk out and the team, by the second half, were clearly knackered after Dundee, but we held on. And the crowd deserves huge credit. That atmosphere was fantastic. Bring on the a Hibees . 

Jones was great today at running with the ball and taking the pressure offf but his decision making and execution at the end of the runs was terrible - it was almost the case that he passed when he should have shot and vice versa. 

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42 minutes ago, kfc_superteam said:

Fantastic win again. We are putting ourselves in a great position. Concentrate on being safe but we are in a great position with Well and Hearts for 5th but we need to keep going. 

I actually think the focusing on steering clear of relegation is helping. There’s a hunger and drive to get as far away from it as possible. At some point we may well need to admit we are contenders higher up but let’s secure safety first

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SC said on the radio after the game that he was told when he took the job the target was to get the team away from the bottom of the league, and as far as he was concerned that remained the target.

Jonathan Sutherland then said if you win your games in hand you could be right in amongst Hearts and Hibs etc. and what did SC think about that? He replied: "I think if is the biggest word in football..." 

I could listen to him speak all day long.

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27 minutes ago, DuncanEwart said:

I could listen to him speak all day long.

Honestly the man is brilliant. He speaks thoughtfully and the fact that people think he’s dour is funny to me. He’s cool, coy and makes a mockery of their continuous annoying and quite frankly stupid questions. 

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2 hours ago, historyman said:

Jones was great today at running with the ball and taking the pressure offf but his decision making and execution at the end of the runs was terrible - it was almost the case that he passed when he should have shot and vice versa. 

Spot on. Surely someone can work on his decision making. What a player he would be if he sorts this.

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That was a tough fought 3 points today, won against the run of play for most of the game yet our defence and shape stayed strong all afternoon. You could see how visibly tired most of the lads looked in last 15 mins or so but were still determined to defend properly and support each other going forward. Mulumbu adds so much calmness and good decision making, Rory, SOD, Jones, Brophy & Boyd ran themselves to a standstill. Taylor and the back 3 won so many challenges and tried to play it out whenever possible. Support was awesome, well done all.

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2 hours ago, Chum said:

Honestly the man is brilliant. He speaks thoughtfully and the fact that people think he’s dour is funny to me. He’s cool, coy and makes a mockery of their continuous annoying and quite frankly stupid questions. 

Today's stand side linesman is a very good friend of mine.
Here's what he messaged me after the game : " Ur manager is a true gentleman mate! I wish him & u boys all the very best!!!"
Made me proud to be KTID

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4 minutes ago, lonewolfie said:

Today's stand side linesman is a very good friend of mine.
Here's what he messaged me after the game : " Ur manager is a true gentleman mate! I wish him & u boys all the very best!!!"
Made me proud to be KTID

Clarke never loses the rag with the officials or blames them for mistakes. I guess they appreciate it.

I don't recall giving your friend any verbal encouragement today so he must have had a good game - either that or being behind the goals makes it more difficult! All the officials had a good game - even McLean for once. 

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3 hours ago, DuncanEwart said:

SC said on the radio after the game that he was told when he took the job the target was to get the team away from the bottom of the league, and as far as he was concerned that remained the target.

Jonathan Sutherland then said if you win your games in hand you could be right in amongst Hearts and Hibs etc. and what did SC think about that? He replied: "I think if is the biggest word in football..." 

I could listen to him speak all day long.

Bang on sir

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I haven’t read right through the thread so apologies if discussed before but I’m sure I was one of many who were bemoaning the fact we continually allowed the boy at left back/left centre back to carry the ball out and it seemed like we just weren’t pushing out quickly enough.

Once S(G)OD scored though I started to wonder if it had all been a ploy to open them up a bit down the flanks. The longer the game went on I watched SC a lot and he was so relaxed just perched on the advertising board for the majority that I realised that the players must’ve been carrying out his tactics to a T. Can only assume the players were told to trust the 3 CBs and let Well fire the balls into us. We got lucky a couple of times but if my suspicions are correct it’s another example of Clarkes simple, but brilliant, tactics and his confidence in the players to carry out whatever he lays out.

Rory especially was the main “culprit” for this lack of covering across when I, and those around me, were screaming for us to push out but again the boy has obviously stuck to his task very well. I’m not his biggest fan but he is clearly doing something right and I think his intelligence on the park is what keeps him in the team.

When you consider the following players didn’t start on Saturday and are all options for us then it really bodes brilliantly for the rest of the season:

Erwin

Frizzell

Wilson

Kiltie

Tshibola

Greer

 

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It was clearly a ploy to let the boy Dunne at left centre back have a lot of the ball . Clarke will have watched previous games and know he’s least comfortable on ball . Means we can have a extra man in elsewhere . McKenzie in first twenty minutes was allowing him to come to far and he was able to slip a few passes down the side of Broadfoot and Sod who got roasted a couple of times from Frear . We eventually got used to it as game went on . But we adjusted from 532 in defence to 352 in attack . Sod and Greg Taylor were magnificent . Centre half’s done well with two big boys up front . To have JJ playing essentially left centre midfield first half was amazing . McKenzie was outstanding in middle of park . Ran himself into the ground . Clarke later changed to a 541 to kill the game when Boyd went off for Shug . With a depleted team Clarke showed what a manager with tactical ability can do . It’s obvious from the stand but he’s clearly done his homework . Fantastic run . Looking forward to having a fit squad for Hibs /Hearts /Aberdeen

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