Source: Team_Talk
Calderwood twists knife into Dons
Jimmy Calderwood admitted he took extra pleasure from Kilmarnock's 2-0 win over Aberdeen given the manner of his Pittodrie departure last year.[LNB] Aberdeen's defeat at Rugby Park on Sunday saw them consigned to the SPL's bottom six for the first time since six years ago, shortly after which Calderwood and Jimmy Nicholl took over at Pittodrie.[LNB]Mark McGhee's team started well at Rugby Park but they never recovered from Davide Grassi's 25th-minute own goal and Allan Russell sealed a deserved win for Killie with a looping header in the 73rd minute.[LNB]Calderwood lost the backing of the board despite leading Aberdeen into Europe last May but the team he left behind are seven points behind seventh-placed Hearts with two games remaining before the split.[LNB]Calderwood said: "It's a massive disappointment for them. It's ironic that we took them there in five years and the next year we're the team that stops them getting there.[LNB]"Obviously the circumstances it happened, it's always great to win against them. A lot of your own players are still there. I'm sure they would love to win against us and they did up at Pittodrie, and deservedly so.[LNB]"But the most important thing for Kilmarnock was that we got the win, it didn't matter who it was against. That just makes it a wee bit extra because of what happened."[LNB]When asked whether Aberdeen's failure highlighted the good job Calderwood had done at Pittodrie, the Kilmarnock manager smiled and said: "That's for other people to say."[LNB]The result was just as important for Kilmarnock as it reopened a four-point advantage over bottom club Falkirk following their victory at Motherwell 24 hours earlier.[LNB]"The events of yesterday put extra pressure on us but we got the breaks and I thought we deserved it," said Calderwood, who lost Frazer Wright to a hamstring injury inside the first two minutes.[LNB]"It was a sore one with Frazer going off so early but it turned out to be a wee bit of luck because (Tim) Clancy was brilliant."[LNB]Mark McGhee questioned his players' determination following the opening goal, which came moments after Cammy Bell had pulled off an impressive save from Dons striker Sone Aluko.[LNB]"I still felt if we won our last three games we had a chance of getting into the top six, so I certainly hadn't given up coming here," McGhee said.[LNB]"My question in the dressing room afterwards was maybe they didn't believe as much as I did that we could still win three games in a row, because we looked like a team who didn't have as much to play for as the other team did.[LNB]"It wasn't a huge difference. If Sone Aluko scores, we probably win the game. Instead they got the first goal and it gave them an edge and something to hold on to.[LNB]"From the first goal, they were the more determined team, they won the 50-50s and most of the battles, and that was my only question to my team."[LNB]McGhee added: "The response most of the time is silence. You hope it's getting through to them.[LNB]"This can't come out as me slaughtering my team because it was marginal."
