Kilmarnock - 24h On

We took advantage of a slack Killie defence and withstood their attempts to recover. It took some brave defending and Jim Jeffries acknowledged our efforts. After the match he said that our defenders wanted the ball more than his attackers and that we set out to hold our lead and did it well.

The referee stole the show with his ill judged decision to give Paterson a yellow card for taking too long to deliver the ball at a throw in. There was no warning, no peep of the whistle and no waving of his arm to encourage him to get a move on. A second yell was flashed and Jimbo walked without waiting for the red.

As we know only too well from the game against United last week, a ten man team often compensates for the loss by delivering extra effort and our lads duly obliged. We stood up to their onslaught and shut up shop. We were helped by some poor finishing and some brave goalkeeping.

While the rest of us are tucking into the Christmas pudding, the squad should be exercising restraint and be nibbling some salad as they prepare for what could be a very important game at Dunfermline. A win would see us ten points above the Pars and provide a large cushion as we face the trials of the old firm double header. If we follow that with a win over Airdrie we really will have a happy New Year!