BY DARREN JOHNSTONE @CCP_Sport
Kilmarnock manager Gary Locke insists he is not panicking about his side’s drop into the Premiership relegation play-off zone.
The Ayrshire side have failed to win any of their previous six matches and Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Inverness saw Kilmarnock fall behind Motherwell into eleventh place.
The Rugby Park outfit got off to the worst possible start in the Highlands when a mistake by Kevin McHattie led to Iain Vigurs scoring the first of his two goals and Locke admits he is desperate to guide his team out of trouble as quickly as possible.
Locke, whose side are eight points clear of basement strugglers Dundee United, said: “It’s not significant at this stage because we’ve still got plenty games to go but we certainly need to start picking up points and picking up wins; the boys are well aware of that.
“What we have to do is cut out the slopping defending that’s costing us very dearly.”
Kilmarnock host Aberdeen on Saturday and after recently taking a point at Celtic, Locke admits they will be more than confident of frustrating a Dons side that have aspirations of mounting a title challenge.
He added: “We go into the game and look to try and win it, we’ll get back on the training pitch and work hard.
“You can work hard all week and shape the team up but when you make the mistakes that we did for the first goals, as a manager there is not a lot I can do about that.”
