VASSELL: CUP LOSSWON’T DERAIL OUR EURO PUSH
Killie skipper says focus now on crunch St Mirren tie
Kilmarnock skipper Kyle Vassell issued an apology to fans following their Scottish Cup exit - and vowed to make sure it doesn’t impact their league form.
The Rugby Park men produced arguably their poorest display of the campaign at the weekend as they were beaten 3-1 at Pittodrie and dumped out of the cup at the quarter-final stage.
However, the big games come thick and fast as they host St Mirren in SPFL Premiership action on Saturday knowing a victory would take them back into fourth place and strengthen their bid for European football.
Vassell, who teed up Danny Armstrong for Killie’s goal against Aberdeen, is targeting a top six berth first and foremost and knows they can take a huge step towards achieving that if they can dust themselves down and pick up the points against the Buddies.
He said: “It’s a bitter one because I wanted to lead the boys out at Hampden.
“The fans were amazing, they came up here and sold out their end so we apologise to them because it’s a sore one.
“We lost goals at bad times and the manner of them, with deflections and stuff, was hard to take.
“But we can’t dwell on it too long because we have a massive game on Saturday coming.”
He added: “We need to focus on getting top six first and foremost but we can’t look too far ahead.
“Our main thing is getting top six and then after that you can think about Europe.
“Will this result fire us up? I don’t think so, it doesn’t change anything because we have such a focused group.
“The gaffer is very good at making us focus on one game at a time so we’d be fired up for the rest of the season no matter what.”
Killlie, who head into the game sitting just a point behind Stephen Robinson’s men, will have to make do without defender Lewis Mayo.
The centre-back saw red in their recent 2-2 draw away to Dundee with the club’s appeal being turned down and he will serve a one match suspension.