Calderwood baffled by Killie display

21 February 2010 09:55
Chris Maguire's first-half close-range goal - after Paul Gallacher had spilled Craig Bryson's shot - looked to have continued Kilmarnock's superb recent run of results under new manager Calderwood.[LNB]But St Mirren were the better side for much of the game and Billy Mehmet's wonderful late equaliser ended their dismal run of results and denied Kilmarnock a club record of four consecutive SPL wins.[LNB]Kilmarnock at least preserved an unbeaten record which stretches back to January 23, but Calderwood was at a loss to explain why his side performed so poorly in the 1-1 draw.[LNB]He said: "That wasn't two points thrown away, it was a point gained. When you play as poorly as that and get a point you can't complain too much.[LNB]"I wasn't happy with the first minute to the 90th and the only plus point is the point we got. We set certain standards and got nowhere near them today.[LNB]"I don't know where it came from because we've been on a good run and we've been training hard. The players have done brilliantly for me but we set standards and couldn't reach them today."[LNB]Calderwood was happy to emphasise that St Mirren deserved their point and suggested that their manager, Gus MacPherson, may have learnt the art of chasing an equaliser when he played under him at Dunfermline.[LNB]The former Aberdeen manager said: "To be fair to St Mirren they went for it. Gus kept throwing players on - he might have learnt a bit a few years ago at Dunfermline - and we were all over the place.[LNB]"Normally we could defend a lead like that but to be fair it was a great strike from Billy Mehmet. We never got out in defence and because they have a big physical presence, a ball can fall in their favour.[LNB]"If you've pushed up the park then they've still got 50 yards to go but if you're sitting deep and it falls for them they can get a strike on goal, which they did.[LNB]"They kept pushing us back. It started in the first minute and we kept saying 'push up, push up' and we did have a wee spell when we were better and Chris Maguire had a great chance to finish the game but that summed up our day."[LNB]St Mirren boss MacPherson insists he knew his out-of-form side had the character to bounce back from conceding a goal against the run of play in the first half.[LNB]Mehmet struck in the 82nd minute with a glorious volley from 14 yards out to give the men from Paisley hope that they can kick-start their league campaign.[LNB]St Mirren haven't won in the league since January 12 and had picked up just one point from a possible 18 before the game to leave them perilously close to Falkirk, surprise winners over Aberdeen, in the relegation zone.[LNB]MacPherson said: "I was scratching my head how we were 1-0 down at half time having dominated the game right from the start. We created good chances in the first half and were in control.[LNB]"We got caught with a sucker punch, when the ball drops to the only Kilmarnock player in the vicinity. That has been happening lately, but we opened up and took chances in the last 30 minutes and got no more than we deserved.[LNB]"It was a terrific strike. Billy is getting a lot of praise at the moment and is a very good player technically but it takes a lot of ability to strike the ball like that.[LNB]"We've seen in the last couple of seasons that our heads don't go down if things go against us. At half time we said we still had to believe what we were doing was the right thing.[LNB]"We made the changes to get some momentum going because at that point Kilmarnock looked like they may get a second and our substitutes had the right impact on the game.[LNB]"We were able to play Andy Dorman as a wing-back and Allan Johnston in midfield and it worked for us as we were able to push Kilmarnock further back."[LNB][LNB][LNB]

Source: Team_Talk