Kilmarnock Standard

FROM TREE TO PRINT

Vital point is secured WINDOWs, Doors, CONSERVATO­RIES and SUNROOMS

- ROSS DUNN

Weareproud­tobringyou­fullchaino­f custody status with PEFC certificat­ion. Beingaread­erofourpap­ersdoesnot inanywayco­ntributeto­deforestat­ion.

It could prove to be Kilmarnock’s most vital point of the season.

That was Derek McInnes’ assessment as Killie scored a lastgasp goal to draw 1-1 at Celtic Park on Saturday afternoon.

The magnitude of the fightback was not lost on the Rugby Park boss as David Watson’s 92 minute header cancelled out a first-half nod from Kyogo Furuhashi.

In pursuit of a place in the top six and ambitions to compete in Europe again, results fell in favour of the Ayrshire side in a bid to solidify fourth place.

McInnes said after the match:

“We’re the fourth best team in the leage at the minute but the league doesn’t stop now.

“I’m aware that there’s so many teams that could still come past us and we’ve always got to be aware of that. For me it’s the team that finds the form now is what’s important.

“We’ve got ourselves in a decent position but it counts for nothing. We’ve got wins to get before the split and nobody’s going to give us them. Results like today don’t do you any harm, clearly, it’s a good point and who knows, it might be the most important point we’ve earned in the run-in but I still think we’ve got to knuckle down.

“We’ve got Aberdeen at Rugby Park next week and it’s important that we take the good from today, see where we are in terms of fitness and try win another home game.”

In the dying moments of the match, McInnes, the Killie players and supporters held their breath as VAR officials checked over Watson’s header, which was cleared after a few minutes.

Speaking about the moment the ball hit the back of the net, McInnes added: “I was pleased but then you remember there’s someone in a studio sitting along the road and you can’t over celebrate.

“I couldn’t remember a hand ball and I knew Fraser Murray wasn’t offside. A good moment for us and great for the supporters and players because that reinforces the belief we’re going to need in the next seven games.

“We’ve had one defeat in 13 and that was at Ibrox at New Year so we’re showing good competitiv­e side to us but I also thought we showed good quality, high energy, brilliant pressing at the right times.

“You can’t actually do that for 90 minutes at Celtic. I’ve tried that at times and they’re good enough to play you and the physical part of it so we picked and chose our moments to really get after them and we got our reward.”

Killie play host to Neil Warnock’s Aberdeen side this Saturday at 3pm with Rangers following on Wednesday evening.

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