Kilmarnock looked like they may just be starting to find some solutions to the problem areas in their team. <\/p>\n
The departure of Kyle Vassell in the summer has left them without a focal point in attack, and McCann brought in three forward players to beef up his options \u2013 Findlay Curtis on-loan from Rangers, Moldova winger Nicky Clescenco and Manchester United striker Joe Hugill.<\/p>\n
All three started on the bench, and it was a player already in the building who provided Killie with that presence up front from which the rest of the team could thrive.<\/p>\n
Tyreece John-Jules was excellent. He held the ball up, brought his team-mates into play, provided a lovely assist for Bruce Anderson to fire his side into a 2-0 lead and scored a cracking goal himself to put the result beyond doubt.<\/p>\n
It was a sign of the confidence coursing through the big striker that he even attempted an audacious bicycle kick in the second half, though the less said about that the better.<\/p>\n
John-Jules and Anderson led the press that unsettled Aberdeen from the off, with Dom Thompson’s energy up and down the left flank key for Killie with and without the ball.<\/p>\n
As much as the forward players caught they eye, McCann rightly highlighted his team’s defensive efforts.<\/p>\n
Kelle Roos looked more assured in goal and came up with a couple of big saves, while Robbie Deas, after a shaky start, made some crucial interventions. <\/p>\n
His double goal-line block to deny Kevin Nisbet and then Topi Keskinen just before half-time was outstanding. A goal for the Dons at that moment, against a team with fragile confidence, could have changed the whole dynamic of the game.<\/p>\n
It is only a third league win of the campaign for Killie and they remain three points adrift of St Mirren in 10th, having played a game more.<\/p>\n
But with the winless run behind them, a first victory for McCann and fresh faces in the squad, Killie are able to look forward to Wednesday’s trip to Ibrox with renewed belief.<\/p>\n
“I want us to catch fire,” McCann said. “I want it to be a catalyst, a platform we can launch from. We’ve got a really tough game midweek at Rangers which we need to recover for.<\/p>\n
“But the boys deserve to let loose tonight and just enjoy that victory because it has been such a long time.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kilmarnock looked like they may just be starting to find some solutions to the problem areas in their…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401468,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-401467","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-football","8":"tag-football","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}