Stuart Kettlewell says Marcus Dackers’ hard work is paying off with goals

Stuart Kettlewell believes Marcus Dackers is starting to reap the rewards of his hard work after netting in Kilmarnock’s 2-0 win over St Mirren.

It was the Welshman’s first league strike of the season after moving to Rugby Park from Salford in the summer.

And his manager revealed the 6ft 7ins frontman had been working hard on his heading technique with the coaching staff all week.

Kettlewell said: “I need to go back to his work ethic on this and go back to the coaching staff and everybody that works with the players.

“It’s a brilliant moment because Marcus has headed a few balls this week in practice and we’ve spent a lot of time with him trying to work on his movement into the box, trying to get away from defenders, but also the quality of the finishes.

“The bit that’s obvious is he’s six foot seven but we feel that he can pitch in with more goals from those crosses into the box. I think that’s why you’ve seen him running over to (Kilmarnock coach) Stevie Frail and some of the guys after his goal. We’re having to drag him off the pitch because he wants to get better.

“That’s the most pleasing thing for the coaching staff, that you do your work during the week to try and reap the rewards at the weekend. I think everybody’s seen how much the big fella brings to the game. We feel that he can chip in with more goals, as does he. So it’s nice for him to get his rewards.”

Kettlewell also felt that Dackers’ versatility will prove to be a major asset for Kilmarnock moving forward once he gets up to full fitness.

He added: “I think you go to the obvious angle of hold-up play because of his size. But I would flip it. You see the dying embers of the game. You see he’s got good feet.

“You can see he can run and shift into wide areas as well. So, I think he’s shown us a lot. And one of the simple ones that people kind of forget is match fitness.

“If you’d watched him at the start of the season when he’s cramping up and he’s starting to fatigue, it looks like he can play 90 minutes now.”

St Mirren manager Stephen Robinson hoped to put the defeat down to a rare bad day at the office.

He said: “It’s a one off. It’s our second defeat in 18 games. It happens sometimes. Sometimes it’s a little wake up call. We just put it down as a bad day—me included, so I’m fully part of that. But they’ve certainly earned a break.

“We’re missing three of our key players. Keanu (Baccus) came on at half time when he probably shouldn’t have come on, but we needed something. If we have them back for (the next game), then we’ll be a different proposition.”