Kilmarnock 3 - 1 St Mirren: Three and easy for Killie

THE Kilmarnock support aren’t often moved to song, yet they have been around the hour mark of the past two Rugby Park encounters. And each time the choral celebrations have been promoted by the same feat.

Scorers: Kilmarnock - Sheridan (26), Fowler (57), Dayton (61); St Mirren - McGowan (83)

Bookings: Kilmarnock - Racchi; St Mirren - van Zanten, Mair, McAusland, Guy

Attendance: 4,879

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A ripper from James Dayton yesterday ensured a second successive three-goal haul on their own patch for Kenny Shiels’ men, coming after their recent 3-1 victory over Dundee United. These successes have made for back-to-back home league wins for the first time this year and moved the club up to fourth in the SPL table.

Remarkably, it is seven years since Kilmarnock last bagged three goals in straight league victories down Ayrshire way. All in itself enough for any exercising of the vocal cords from the club faithful. But there was further added cause for their singing, as it must be seven years since the Rugby Park men won so handsomely after being so comprehensively outplayed for an opening half.

St Mirren gave their hosts nothing short of chasing for most of the first period. Lewis Guy should have made the dominance count but lacked conviction when sent in on Kyle Lethern, with the outcome that the keeper was able to make a diving stop, before he had an effort blocked on the line by James Fowler. The encounter then turned when Danny Racchi whipped over a ball from the right that Cillian Sheridan rose to nod in effortlessly. The perfect way for the former CSKA Sofia player to mark his home debut at his latest SPL stop-off, the 23-year-old described his account-opener as a “bit of a relief”.

Ultimately, it seemed to relieve the pressure on his whole team, who were two up inside two minutes of the restart after Fowler drilled in from the edge of the box, the ball breaking to him after it bounced off the shin of Sheridan. And following his sniping with Hibs counterpart Pat Fenlon the previous week over a penalty award that condemned the Ayrshire club to defeat, the only post-match eyebrow-raising caused by Shiels’ impression of the afternoon events was that he choose to eulogise this strike over the one shortly afterwards from Dayton that saw the winger tear off down the left and thrash the ball high into the right hand corner of Craig Samson’s net from what seemed an impossible angle.

Shiels’ gushed over Fowler’s effort, while only giving Dayton’s the commendation of “spectacular”. “What a goal,” he said of the clinching second. “The best goal I’ve seen in the SPL in a long time. A team goal of immense performance. What a fantastic move it was.” He wittered on about the manner the ball had been shuttled around and laid off by Sheridan, which surprised the Irishman, who admitted a Racchi ball fired in “hit off me, hit the inside of my thigh”. It was that sort of curious day, which Shiels did acknowledge. “In games between Kilmarnock and St Mirren the team that has victory of the ball seems to end up losing,” he said. “I don’t want to take anything away from my team by over-praising St Mirren but for 20 minutes they had victory of the ball. But from 1-0 on we fully deserved to run out winners. I have so much respect for the way St Mirren play and it was a fantastic game, a great advert for SPL football, and after St Mirren and Kilmarnock created something positive you can go and write something positive.”

Unsurprisingly, Danny Lennon sported a haunted look when giving his post-match briefing. The sum total of his team’s efforts proved a Paul McGowan strike that took a deflection on its way in with only seven minutes remaining, Guy also flicking a volley on to the bar during a late rally that the Paisley club’s manager took some comfort in.

“I really enjoyed the first half, taking away the missed opportunities,” he said.

“The difference between the sides was when they had penalty box incidents they took them. Last week [in the 2-0 home win over Hearts] we were limited to only two chances but scored two goals. Today we had numerous chances.”

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The St Mirren manager accepted their had been a “self-destruct” aspect to the Kilmarnock goals. That was a clear reference to McGowan running in to trouble and losing possession in a dangerous area in the lead-up to the first and Dayton being allowed to burrow into the box largely unchallenged for his peach. But he praised his men for “plugging away” and was in no doubt they would “pick themselves up” for Tuesday’s last 16 League Cup tie at home to Hamilton Accies.

“We have always bounced back in the past from poor results,” he said. Rarely can they have bounced themselves into as poor a result having played anything but badly, though.

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