St Johnstone boss Craig Levein was left “mystified” by his team’s slow start at Rugby Park.
And even though things improved significantly for the Perth side as the clash with Kilmarnock progressed, gifting the hosts a two-goal lead proved to be too big a hole to dig themselves out of.
“That was a strange game,” said Levein. “I don’t know what happened.
“We’ve not started any games since I’ve been here in that manner.
“I also have to say as much as we were off it, Killie started really well.
“We were two down and they missed a chance to go to three before we even turned up.
“Then when we turned up I was happy.
“I thought we ended the first half well and then I thought we had more dominance and I was pleased with the performance.
“We snookered ourselves by giving away two goals early on.”
Levein added: “I was just trying to work out what the hell had happened.
“It’s much easier looking back – and I’ll pore over the footage.
“I don’t know if going two behind actually took the pressure off and we then thought maybe we’ll start playing football now.
“Once we started doing that it was harder for Killie to get dominance and their chances started to dry up.
“We controlled the match. It got a bit bitty towards the end.
“Killie were good at seeing the game out and we were maybe a little naive on that front.
“I was hopeful of getting another goal. Tony (Gallacher) has a great chance to score (from six yards out).
“But that’s ifs, buts and maybes.
“I’m sitting here a bit mystified as to why we didn’t start the game in our usual manner.”
Clark shows his worth again
Nicky Clark scored Saints’ goal four minutes after coming off the bench and generally picked up where he left off before he sustained his calf injury six weeks ago.
“Getting Nicky back is obviously a massive thing for us,” said Levein.
“With calf problems you’re always worried about how much game time you can manage.
“He scored today, was clever in his play and that’s always going to help us.
“Although he’s not particularly tall, he’s good in the air and uses his body well.
“He’s very lively around the penalty box. It was a fantastic cross from Matty Smith that led to the goal.
“When you have one who knows the league and what he needs to be good at to get goals and assists in this league, they are worth their weight in gold.
“He’s the only one we have of that type.
“We have other guys who can run and do the rest of it but there’s a real art to putting the ball in the back of the net as we saw today.”
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