0Match Report
Pre-season friendly
Stenhousemuir 0 Kilmarnock 3 [Invincible, Sammon, Fernandez]
The last of the pre-season friendlies featured the Warriors against a strong Kilmarnock side who were still in the early stages of their pre-season preparations. Kilmarnock had promised to send a strong team to Ochilview and they were true to their word sending their full available first team squad and starting arguably with their strongest eleven. They had one player on trial in Conor Sammon from Derry City who after his showing in this game and subsequent matches signed for Killie.
The Warriors had their pre-season game on the Monday before this game with the 5-0 victory over Airdrie but this was to be a totally different proposition. Kilmarnock took the lead in the 16th minute through a Danny Invincible strike but although he took his effort well the Warriors defence did not cover themselves in glory in their earlier attempts to clear the danger. For most of the half the Premier League side were contained but they scored a second just before time when Sammon showed his pace and power to burst through the defence before firing past Scott Bennett.
In the second half the Warriors continued to work hard but were unable to get anything for their efforts and they lost their third goal when David Fernandez latched on to a poor clearance and dispatched the ball past Bennett.
Despite the score it was a decent performance by the Warriors and an important workout in the build up to the important campaign and gave the manager a chance to fine tune the squad for that event. The last couple of games gave the manager some selection problems for future matches but for once in the main they were good ones as it showed that no one was safe as there were players fighting for every position and that no one should think that they have a right to be in the team if they fail to perform.
Stenhousemuir – Scott Bennett, Willie Lyle [Craig McEwan], Chris McGroarty, Gary Thom, Jordan Smith, Paul Tyrrell [Andrew Shirra], Iain Thomson, Andrew Brand, Scott Dalziel [Steven Hampshire] , Graham Gibson [Robert Love] and Kevin Motion
Kilmarnock – Damien Rascle, David Lilley [Ryan O’Leary], Garry Hay [Jamie Hamill], James Fowler, Fraser Wright [Grant Murray], Simon Ford [Martyn Corrigan], Danny Invincible, David Fernandez [Garry Locke], Conor Sammon [t], Mehdi Taouil [Iain Flannigan] and Craig Bryson [Willie Gibson]. Sub not used Chad Harpur
Referee – Craig Charleston
Assistants – Graham Chambers and Brian McGarry
