LIfe Is More Important Than Football

The importance of winning a games can put unbearable stresses on a body With the information of the health of Kilmarnock midfielder Liam Kelly's father still uncertain, it was a very depressed looking Kenny Shiels who met the press after his side had lifted the Communities League Cup. Mr Kelly senior was taken to hospital after collapsing at the end the final which Killie won 1-0. Manager Shiels revealed the Kilmarnock dressing room was left "despondent" despite picking up the silverware. For several minutes after the final whistle, as the Killie fans and players celebrated substitute Dietar Van Tornhout's winning header which takes the trophy to Rugby Park for the first time, paramedics treated Kelly senior right beside the Kilmarnock dugout. Kelly did not join in the celebrations and went directly up the tunnel. Afterwards, the sombre Shiels said: "I am all over the place, I really am. It happened right beside this dugout and I am only doing this press conference out of respect to you (the media) so I hope you appreciate that. I don't know the medical term, but it is a heart attack, probably. He is away to hospital and the family has gone with him. I have went from so high an emotion to so low an emotion. We are not sure of the outcome but he is very seriously ill and that's a tough emotion after going up to one of the best moments of our lives. The dressing room is very despondent and I don't know why the man above sends down these messages to us. We are thinking more about Liam than our triumphalism." Shiels could hardly bring himself to speak about what should have been one of the greatest days in the club's history. He said: "We had a sign up all week: 'Believe to achieve', and that's what we did. We worked on the tactical side of the game, in how we could nullify certain areas of their team but at the same time dominate the ball. For periods of the game we achieved that domination and periods of the game where we gave the ball away cheaply but we were playing the best team in the country. But I don't want to feel good about myself, because we are in a very difficult situation. I am pleased for people like James Fowler and Garry Hay, players who have played their whole career and not won a single trophy."

Source: FOOTYMAD