KILLIE HIT THE BOOS

17/01/2009

Scorers: HEARTS: Aguiar, Karipidis

KILMARNOCK were booed off the pitch after losing for the sixth time in their last seven home matches.

But Rugby Park boss Jim Jefferies refused to criticise his shattered players. And keeper Alan Combe slated the Jambos for their ultra-negative tactics.

He said: “They came here with a gameplan, where they would sit in and bore us to death and it worked.

“We were the better team by far for well over an hour. They got their first goal out of nothing. Although it was a good strike by Bruno Aguiar, it was a sucker punch.

“I wasn’t happy about the time he took getting the game restarted because of his celebrations. I know he’s been out of action for a while, but he deserved his booking for that.

“The annoying thing is that there was only one team in it for most of the game — and it wasn’t Hearts.

“We had three or four great chances and if we’d scored first it would have been a different game.

“Conditions were horrible, but that’s not an excuse. As for their second goal, that was down to sloppiness on our part.

“I’m not singling anyone out because the entire defence has to take a look at themselves.”

Combe, who signed a new two-year contract this week, is confident derby rivals Ayr United won’t benefit from Killie’s homesickness when they arrive on Scottish Cup duty on Thursday.

He added: “I know they’ll have looked at this result and the other recent ones here and think they have a chance, but that’s not going to happen. We need to turn this round and we will.

“We should have enough in our locker to beat Ayr. They say the form book goes out of the window in the Cup and that’s maybe just as well in our case.

“The players have had a chat about our situation and we’re all focused on what we have to do.”

Killie will play much worse than this and win, although as chance after chance was passed up, it became clear they would end up pointless.

David Fernandez was the first sinner. Craig Bryson’s perfectly-weighted pass sent the Spaniard one-on-one with keeper Jamie McDonald, but the ball bobbled as he struck it and it flew high and wide. Aussie ace Danny Invincibile then headed over from just three yards after being picked out by Garry Hay’s cross.

Next up Manuel Pascali saw his header saved by rookie McDonald, who was a safe pair of hands, despite the wet and windy conditions.

Then Fernandez was inches away with a rising drive from the edge of the box.

It seemed a goal had to come soon. It did, but it was Hearts who got it.

Aguiar showed the home side how it should be done when he collected a Michael Stewart pass and drilled a 20-yarder past Combe.

Allan Russell passed up another good opening, slicing a shot wide from six yards from another Hay delivery, before Hearts struck again nine minutes from time.

Stewart sent in a free-kick, Christophe Berra knocked it back across goal and the impressive Christos Karipidis was on hand to supply the finishing header from point-blank range.

Greek defender Karipidis grinned: “It was a great pass from Christophe and I want to dedicate the goal to my daughter, Maria. She was born on April 9 last year, so she’s had to wait a while for her gift!

“The second goal was really important because that made it harder for Kilmarnock. Our target this season is to qualify for Europe, but that won’t be easy. Everybody must concentrate on that.”

Killie boss Jefferies added: “I feel sorry for my players. They’re just not getting the rub of the green. How can I fault them? They’re playing great football, working hard and they kept going right until the end.

“If we keep playing like that it will turn for us.

“We were the better team by far and Hearts only came into the game when they were 2-0 up. That’s easy to do when we’re pushing people forward, but they had offered nothing before that stage.

“It’s been the story for us so often recently. We’ve put so much into games and taken nothing out of them.

“But when you’re on top, as we have been against Hearts and also against Aberdeen on Tuesday, it’s goals and not possession that win games.

“We’re struggling to put the ball in the net at the moment, but it will happen.”

Csaba Laszlo admitted his team hadn’t turned in a classic performance, but the Hearts boss was delighted with the win, which takes them level on points with third-placed Dundee United.

He said: “For me, the most important thing was that we got the three points.

“We had luck in the first half because they had one or two good chances and didn’t score, but I had to make a lot of changes.

“It wasn’t a fantastic football game, but we won and I’m pleased about that.

“I was also pleased by Michael Stewart. It wasn’t a great performance from him but I liked his attitude.

“We’ve been talking a lot this week and I told him if he wants to get back into the Scotland team he has to use the experience he gained at Manchester United to do that.”

KILMARNOCK: Combe, Fowler, Ford, Wright, Hay, Invincibile (Gibson 74), Pascali, Taouil, Bryson, Russell (Simmonds 71), Fernandez. Subs not used: Rascle, Murray, Skelton, Flannigan, Nolan.

HEARTS: MacDonald, Neilson, Berra, Karipidis, Thomson, Obua, Aguiar (Glen 79), Stewart, Driver (Cesnauskis 73), Nade, Jonsson. Subs not used: Kello, Mrowiec, Templeton, Rapnik, Brown.