Kilmarnock

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Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes told BBC Scotland: "We looked a bit blunt in terms of our attacking threat today.

"At the very least we should be getting a 0-0 and bemoaning the fact that we need to do better in attack. We didn't have any real control of the game at any point, Ross County looked a bit brighter than us early on.

"They were more alive and more alert to certain situations. That said, second half we played more in their half but we were a wee bit unconvincing. We huffed and puffed.

"We missed Vassell leading the line for us. There's reasons for why we weren't at our best but it was certainly a disappointing afternoon for us.

"We knew we had an opportunity to move into the top six with a win. Any opportunities to win a home game, you've got to try and do that but we weren't good enough."

Andrew Petrie
BBC Sport Scotland

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It was Ayrshire's finest, Robert Burns, who wrote 'the best laid plans of mice and men often go awry'.

That was the case for Derek McInnes, with Innes Cameron brought on to add some freshness to the front line and give Marley Watkins and company a rest.

That lasted for five minutes, with the big striker going down with a hamstring injury. On came Watkins, who came off again after the hour mark, running on empty.

That was the case for plenty of the Kilmarnock players, despite the four changes. They barely laid a glove on County in the first half, with not a single shot on target.

That has been the problem too often this season. They have failed to score in eight of their 22 games and rarely looked threatening today.

Kilmarnock have been able to come back after going behind this season, winning twice on such occasions, but that has not happened at home. Rugby Park has become pregnable and McInnes can no longer rely on good home form to keep them away from danger.

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Kilmarnock captain Kyle Vassell was taken to hospital with a shin injury after the new-year win over St Mirren.

But fellow forward Marley Watkins is expected to return and winger Danny Armstrong is back from suspension.

Matty Kennedy is battling a back problem, while Stuart Findlay is a long-term absentee.

Ross County will check on the fitness of Michee Efete and Ryan Leak after the defenders went off injured in Thursday's win at Aberdeen.

On-loan midfielder Aidan Denholm is back at parent club Hearts to have a hamstring injury assessed, while Eli Campbell, Ross Laidlaw, Will Nightingale and Alex Samuel miss out.

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• Kilmarnock have only lost one of their last nine Scottish Premiership home games against Ross County (W6 D2), going down 0-1 in September 2023.

• After their 2-1 victory in October, Ross County are looking for back-to-back wins over Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership for the first time since September 2017.

• Kilmarnock have won each of their last three home league matches, last winning more in a row in the top-flight in January 2019 (run of five) under Steve Clarke.

• Ross County have won both of their last two away league outings, as many as their previous 31 on the road beforehand (W2 D9 L20). Never before in their top-flight history have they enjoyed three away wins in a row.

• Kilmarnock's Bruce Anderson has scored seven Scottish Premiership goals against Ross County – his most against a single opponent.

Sportscene pundit Steven Naismith on the costly lapse from Alex Gogic that led to St Mirren conceding the opener in their defeat at Kilmarnock.

We asked for your views on Kilmarnock's 2-0 home win against St Mirren.

Here's what some of you said:

Stephen: Another good home performance with passing, movement and a strong press. Our defence was excellent when Saints did have spells of possession, with Lewis Mayo back to something like last season's consistency. Good call from Derek McInnes bringing on Kyle Magennis when Kyle Vassell went off injured. His added composure in midfield meant better balance up front.

Robert: Very good professional performance. Probably the most comfortable win this season as I couldn't see St Mirren score. When I see the number of ridiculous yellow cards we've had this season it astounds me that Alex Gogic got away with constant fouling. No wonder he was hooked.

John: Got lucky with penalties. Penalties have been good to us this season, it would be good to score more goals from open play but take a win anyway. We have tricky games ahead but they are winnable.

Sean: Impressed with Bruce Anderson's performance. We need to start him most games. Against St Mirren's defence, he was causing all sort of problems. We need to shoot more, as too often, we tried to pass it into the net. But a good performance and win to start 2025.

David: Overall a positive three points with no goals conceded. Thought the midfield ran the show during the first half. Gogic should've been sent off before he was taken off. Onwards to Sunday's game!

Scott: Pretty comfortable win. Maybe not as exciting a performance as last week but St Mirren never laid a glove on us. I said before the Hearts game a few weeks ago that this would be a big period in our season and so it is proving.

Jonathan Sutherland
Sportscene presenter

Bruce Anderson: The penalty specialist of the Premiership was at the double to secure victory against St Mirren. Even though his first spot-kick was saved, the striker pounced on the rebound to put Kilmarnock in front. It's now four spot-kicks from five, and a total goals tally of eight, for Anderson this season.

Andy Burke
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Bruce Anderson hopes his goals can help propel Kilmarnock back into the Premiership top six after scoring a brace to beat St Mirren.

The 26-year-old netted either side of the break to ensure Killie started 2025 in a positive fashion and moved within three points of the top half.

"The most important thing is the three points, but to start the new year with two goals, I am over the moon," the former Livingston striker told BBC Scotland.

"Look, I'm here to score goals. I said that when I first joined the club, my game is all about scoring goals. I've got a lot to work on the other side of the game, but the main thing for me is I just want to score as much as I can.

"I think the gaffer knows that if he puts me in, he can sort of hang his hat on me to find the back of the net and that's what I'll be looking to do any time I get the chance."

"Can we go and kick on another level? Obviously I wasn't here last year but I've seen it from the outside how good a club it is, so now we'll look to take it to the next level this year and hopefully we can bring more good times to the club."

Watch the best of the action from Rugby Park as Kilmarnock beat St Mirren 2-0 in the Scottish Premiership.

(Available to UK users only)

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• St Mirren have failed to score in seven of their 21 games, only Ross County (nine) have failed to score more often in the Premiership this season.

• Bruce Anderson has scored eight goals in the Premiership this season (two in this game), more than any other Kilmarnock player.

• St Mirren have conceded six penalties in the Premiership this season, no team has conceded more.

• Kilmarnock registereed five shots on target in this match, higher than their season average of 3.6 in the Premiership.

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Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes: "The clean sheet is huge for us. That's three clean sheets in a row at home now and three victories.

"We didn't need to be brilliant today, we just needed to be really responsible. We scored good goals at good times and our overall play merited the win."

On Vassell's injury: "Kyle's was a serious one I think. It's his shin.

"I'm just hoping that we get a bit of good fortune with that one. He's away at the hospital now getting an X-ray so I don't really want to speculate too much.

"But it certainly looked as if it could be a sore one."

A double from Bruce Anderson helped Kilmarnock to victory over St Mirren and boosted the Ayrshire side's top-six hopes in the Scottish Premiership.

Were you at Rugby Park or were you following the action from home? Either way, we want your thoughts.

Have your say on the game., external

Andy Burke
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Derek McInnes said before the game that after "a significant year" for the club in 2024 the last thing he wanted was for Kilmarnock to become "irrelevant in the league".

This was an important win for the Ayrshire side as they try to edge themselves towards the top six and start looking up the table rather than beneath them.

After producing arguably their best performance of the season in their final home match of the year against Aberdeen, McInnes wanted more of the same against St Mirren and while they never looked likely to reach those heights, they did exert an element of control throughout.

The injury to Kyle Vassell will be a concern and manager McInnes will hope he is not deprived of his captain's services for any significant length of time.

At the other end of the pitch, another clean sheet laid the platform for this victory and the Killie rearguard pretty much nullified any threat the Buddies posed.

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Bruce Anderson was the matchwinner for Kilmarnock, scoring twice.

The striker had the most shots and most touches in the opposition box of any player for Derek McInnes' side.

A mention too for Fraser Murray, who created four chances and continues to impress.

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

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Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes admitted at the weekend that he expects Danny Armstrong's fourth year at Rugby Park to be his last after the 27-year-old rejected a new contract amid rumoured interest from Hearts.

Given McInnes pointed out that Armstrong's performances had dipped this season, he might view young emerging striker Bobby Wales and blossoming midfielder Fraser Murray as bigger priorities, while veteran captain and striker Kyle Vassell and key defender Robbie Deas also have their futures to be decided.

Other contracts expiring: Kieran O'Hara, goalkeeper; Joe Wright, defender; Liam Donnelly, midfielder; Kyle Magennis, midfielder; Gary Mackay-Steven, midfielder; Rory McKenzie, forward; Innes Cameron, forward.

Read more: Premiership summer free agents facing uncertain January

Sandy Armour
Fan writer

I hope all you Killie fans had a wonderful Christmas and it was nice to see the team giving us a memorable present on Boxing Day.

The 90 minute performance against the flagging Dons was magnificent, our best in recent seasons, and only comparable to the five goal second half demolition of St Mirren last season.

Every single player contributed but special mention to Fraser Murray who is a man reborn in recent weeks.

We knew the trip to Easter Road, against in form Hibs, would be difficult and so it proved. In all fairness it wasn't the entertaining spectacle many were expecting and neither keeper had much to do.

The game was settled by Killie losing a cheap goal from a corner and once we went down to ten men (again) it was a step too far for us to recover.

It's very easy to pick on referees these days, as the standard of officiating is appalling, however the rookie ref here was easily the worst I've seen. He was clearly out his depth and at no time had proper control of the game.

Killie have the chance to accumulate some valuable points as we face three home games in six days, it could be a flying start to 2025.

Sandy Armour is editor of The Killie Hippo fanzine.

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• Kilmarnock are unbeaten across their last nine Scottish Premiership meetings with St Mirren (W4 D5) since a 0-2 defeat in February 2021.

• St Mirren are winless in their last 11 top-flight away games at Kilmarnock (D4 L7) since a 3-1 victory in May 2013 under Danny Lennon.

• Kilmarnock lost their first league game of 2024 3-1 to Rangers, but haven't lost their opening top-flight match in back-to-back years since 2007/2008.

• St Mirren have only won their first January match of a year in the top-flight in one of their last 11 attempts (D3 L7), a 2-1 victory over Dundee United in 2022.

• Kilmarnock's Derek McInnes has lost just one of his 33 managerial top-flight matches against St Mirren (W15 D17), and none of 15 such games at home to the Buddies (W8 D7).

Watch Sportscene analysis of Kilmarnock's 1-0 defeat against Hibs in the Scottish Premiership.

(Available to UK users only).

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