Kelly humble after Killie double

Published: 07 Feb 2010 - 13:37:40

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The midfielder netted in each half of the 3-0 home victory over Inverness - but afterwards insisted he had not been at his best. He made his long-awaited debut for the Rugby Park side less than two weeks ago but has already played four games, including the pulsating 4-4 draw against Dundee United and the memorable midweek win against Celtic. Now the former Scotland under-18 player, who turns 20 on Wednesday, is hoping for the perfect birthday present by maintaining that unbeaten run with victory in a crucial SPL basement battle at Falkirk. He said: "I didn't play too well but I still managed to get two goals, luckily enough. It wasn't a great performance but we got the result. "I've been really pleased to get a chance to get into the team and I've taken it with both hands. "I had spoken to [former manager] Jim Jefferies and he said he'd give me a chance after Christmas as he wanted to bring me in and give me a run of games. "That could have happened if he'd still been here but I don't know; I'm just happy that Jimmy Calderwood's given me a chance, and I hope to hold down a place in the team. "We're playing really well at the moment - you could see from the Celtic game how well we stuck together, kept the faith as a team and ground out a result because they were on top for large periods of that game, but defensively we're looking really good. "New faces have come in and there's been a new buzz around the place; we've had a couple of good results and the Celtic game really seemed to lift everyone. "We're just hoping to build on that and keep trying to get ourselves up the league - we have a six-pointer against Falkirk on Wednesday and both teams will be really up for it, but we have to try and dig in the way we have been and stick together as a team. "Reaching the cup quarter-finals is a great bonus and we're really looking forward to it; we wanted to go for it in this game as we want to push on in the competition and go as far as we can, and if you win in the last eight, expectations are up." Inverness midfielder Lee Cox shared the view of both managers that the scoreline was a harsh reflection on the visitors, but insisted the First Division's third-placed side could take confidence into their promotion campaign. He said: "We didn't really play that badly and it was just the defensive errors that cost us; we had our chances but their goalkeeper, Cammy Bell, pulled off some terrific saves. "We played very well at the start of the game, buzzing around, and the start of the second half, but it killed us when they got the first two goals when they did before half-time. "Once they scored the third goal a few of us started to believe that maybe it wasn't our day, but we still gave 100 per cent and need to do that in the league. "Kilmarnock had a great result against Celtic and we always thought they'd be up for it but knew we could give them a game and it's just a bit unfortunate that we didn't really show up. "However, they have a lot of quality in their side and we played well against them, so we can take a lot of confidence from that into our next games." Falkirk 6/4, Kilmarnock 7/4, Draw 12/5