Kilmarnock boss Steve Clarke heaped praise on Alan Power after the midfielder’s goal kickstarted another Ladbrokes Premiership fightback against St Mirren.
The 2-1 victory at the Buddies secured Kilmarnock=k’s fourth successive league victory, where they have come from behind in each of them, to climb up third place in the table.
Adam Hammill’s first St Mirren goal put Oran Kearney’s side ahead, but second-half strikes from Power and Aaron Tshibola gave the visitors a hard-fought win.
“He doesn’t get very many,” Clarke said of the Irishman Power. “Fair play to him because if there’s ever a shooting session at training, he’s always out there practising.
“It was nice for him to get a little reward for his efforts. It was his first goal for the club and a good way to get us back in to the game.
“When you’ve got good football players they make decisions on the pitch that sometimes work out. That’s the beauty of our two goals today.”
Clarke’s men will have the opportunity to go second with victory over Hamilton next week and could even move to the top of the table in the unlikely event that Hearts were to lose at Dundee in midweek.
But the Killie boss is staying grounded.
“It’s difficult to win four games in a row in any league. We’ll keep our feet on the ground. Hamilton will be a tough match and we’ll get somebody to their match against Rangers to get an eye on them.
“Nothing is ever easy. We’ll try and make it five wins on the row if we can but we won’t underestimate our opponents. We never do that.”
The Buddies have taken just one point from a possible 15 since Oran Kearney succeeded Alan Stubbs in early September and the Northern Irishman condemned his side’s game-management after they took the lead in the first half.
“The way we managed the game (when we were ahead) is probably the most disappointing thing,” Kearney explained.
“The ball stayed in play a lot and we couldn’t do anything to stifle Kilmarnock.
“I’ve seen it plenty of times before that if you can get to the 60-minute mark then they start to lose faith, and you can find yourself able to kick on and try and do something. It’s that 15-minute spell that was disappointing.
“We recognise there will be moments like the first half when we were on top, but there’s also moments when the other team will have their say and it’s about how to manage that.
“It’s the game-management aspect that’s probably the most disappointing thing.”
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