| Their next two league games are against teams who are also in the relegation zone, Dunfermline at East End Park on New Year’s Day, and Inverness Caley Thistle’s visit to Dens on January 15.
In between, there is the distraction of a Scottish Cup tie against Hibs at Easter Road.
Manager Jim Duffy may now be tempted to give towering central defender Lee Wilkie a start on New Year’s Day, but revealed the player has not been feeling well lately.
“He played in a closed-doors game during the week, but lasted only 20 minutes and he was sick on the pitch,” he said.
“He came back to training on Christmas Day and, even at this stage, he’s not feeling great.”
On yesterday’s reverse, Jim reflected, “Kilmarnock deserved to win, and there’s no one going to deny that.
“They kept us under pressure for the majority of the game, and Derek Soutar kept us in touch with two or three great saves.
“When we went two goals down, it looked as if the game was beyond us. But we scored just after their second goal and we were back in the game again.
“They had two or three great chances and didn’t score, and then we had a couple of opportunities to equalise. We thought on the sidelines at that stage if we could nick one, we could take something from the game.”
Killie striker Kris Boyd sealed the points for the home side nine minutes from the end, and Duffy commented, “Derek should have saved that one and he knows that himself.
“But I’m not going to criticise him, for he kept us in the game early on with several good saves.” |
