LEE CLARK, the Kilmarnock manager, is not the first to believe that filling your team full of players from the outer reaches of English football will be good enough for the Scottish Premier League.
He signed eleven on the one day in the summer including loans from Huddersfield Town and others released by clubs because they couldn’t cut it and had spells with non-league sides on their CV.
The Ladbrokes Premiership might not be La Liga but it has been proven time and again that just because someone was once signed by a big-ish English club, having never got close to the first-team, does not mean they will come here and stroll the Scottish game.
Clark may claim it is too early to make judgements on his Kilmarnock side. But losing at home to Morton and now Albion Rovers on penalty kicks on Saturday after a 0-0 draw is simply shocking.
Seven points from a possible 12 against lower-league opposition in the Betfred Cup section is a woeful start and, among other things, the manager is demanding more urgency.
"I was very, very disappointed," said Clark, who last week denied a report that he was considering quitting. "We showed a bit of urgency only in the last 10 minutes and I don't know why that is.
"We reiterated that to them at half-time and said we needed to do that more so why we've waited until then to do that I don't know.
"We should have been doing that from the off and, certainly, from the first whistle of the second half because I'd just spoken to them about it.
"It's not as though we didn't have enough attacking players out there but did we make enough chances for those lads?
"We made Albion Rovers' job a lot easier for them because the slower we played, the easier it was to play against us. There's lots for us to work on and we know we have to improve, we know that but it's not tactical - it's just the basics.
"We need to have more guile and play the game quicker. It's simple - play the game quicker with more speed both in our passing and in our movements off the ball. This squad is honest, they're good lads but we need to improve in a lot of areas."
Good lads don’t always make good players. Kilmarnock are in some state and there would not be too many surprised if Clark did not stick around much longer.
Why he felt the need to ignore players who at least knew the Scottish league was a strange one, as was signing an entirely new team when in truth he only needed five or six and, with some good coaching, the squad would have improved.
And what does it say to the young players at Kilmarnock when their path is blocked by players few have heard of.
Albion Rovers have a good young manager in Derek Young but in truth Coatbridge’s finest should have had no chance against a top tier side.
However, they kept a blank sheet and then had enough about them to win the shoot-out and overall deserved their win.
“We said beforehand that with the pitch we’d be able to pass the ball about and that’s what we done,” said Young. “Against a full-time side, their fitness is probably better, but all of our guys put in a great performance.
“Defensively we were brilliant throughout and stuck the penalties away nicely. Overall, it’s been a great day for us and we now need to take that kind of performance into the league campaign.”
Unlike Kilmarnock who need to find something before their league season begins at home to Motherwell on Saturday.
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