Kilmarnock 2 - 0 Motherwell: Homecoming win at end of tough week for Killie

Kilmarnock manager Kenny Shiels hopes they can put the sad episode of the death of Jack Kelly behind them after coping with an emotional afternoon to beat in-form Motherwell.

In a day of mixed emotions, the Ayrshire side paraded the Scottish Communities League Cup and held a minute’s silence for the father of midfielder Liam Kelly. His collapse in the Hampden stand took the shine off the post-match celebrations following Kilmarnock’s victory over Celtic and Shiels admitted it had been a difficult week, with grief overpowering their feelings of joy for the club’s first trophy success in 15 years.

The Kilmarnock players wore T-shirts telling the absent Kelly: ‘We are all with you” as they warmed up, and they put them on again during a lap of honour after Paul Heffernan’s double kept alive their slim hopes of reaching the top six of the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

Shiels was unsure how his team would cope in the circumstances. “That question reverberated in my head for most of the morning,” he said. “I kept thinking, if there’s weakness in our character, we can have a little bit of self-pity in the performance and that can go against us.

“I wasn’t sure because people deal with grief in different ways. I wasn’t sure what way the boys were going to deal with their grief. I thought their character was impeccable.”

Kilmarnock’s deserved win deprived Motherwell of spending Saturday night in second place in the SPL.

Although the Fir Park side dominated the early possession, they were poor in forward areas with the exception of Chris Humphrey.

Gary Harkins grew increasingly influential for the hosts and Heffernan was inches away from opening the scoring in first-half injury-time when he shot just wide following Garry Hay’s through ball. The Irishman netted at the second attempt five minutes after the break, this time after James Fowler’s pass, and then converted a penalty 11 minutes later after Tom Hateley slid in to block Hay’s shot with his hands showing.

Killie were never in danger after that and a triple change midway through the half, with Bob McHugh, Omar Daley and Jamie Murphy coming on, failed to transform a Motherwell side lacking in imagination and creativity.

Their lead over the chasing pack was cut to eight points ahead of their home clash with Rangers this weekend, and manager Stuart McCall was at a loss to explain their “shocker” with a Champions League qualifying spot at stake.

“I don’t want to be over-critical of them because they have produced consistent performances all season, and when we have had a little setback we have stood back up to it,” he said. “But I can’t give a reason why we were so poor. We had everything to play for.

“No disrespect to Kilmarnock, we certainly had more to play for than they did. It didn’t look that way. They deserved their victory and we were very poor. Seven games to go, we need strong reactions.”