KILMARNOCK manager Jim Jefferies claims the return to form of striker David Fernandez offers him hope for next season.
The 32-year-old Spaniard caught the eye in Saturday's 2-1 Clydesdale Bank Premier League win over Falkirk at Rugby Park which ended a frustrating and injury-ravaged campaign for Jefferies on a positive note.
After going behind to a Pedro Moutinho
strike after ten minutes, goals by Mehdi Taouil and Paul Di Giacomo gave a buoyant Ayrshire side a deserved victory. However, despite wins over Hearts and the Bairns in the final two games of the season, Killie finished second bottom to relegated Gretna.
Jefferies is hoping Fernandez will be the man who can inspire Kilmarnock into the top half of the SPL next season. "The plus for us in the last three or four weeks has been David Fernandez," he said. "He looks back to his sharpest. He was never the quickest but he was always sharp and his hold-up play and his use of his body was great against Falkirk.
"If he stays injury-free and gets another pre-season under his belt, he might just be the difference between us being where we are and being up there challenging.
"Hopefully, this has been a one-off season. We all start with zero points next season and I think the disappointments of this season will act as a spur."
While Fernandez has one year remaining on his contract, Jefferies is ready for another summer of wheeling and dealing. The Kilmarnock manager, who has already signed Allan Russell from Airdrie and Gretna midfielder Abdul Osman, met with Taouil's agent over the weekend to try and persuade the Moroccan midfielder to sign a new deal.
And the former Hearts manager is expecting more movement in and out of Rugby Park, saying: "I've still to have the meeting with the chairman and the financial people to discuss the budget. We will sit down and assess the squad. You can't keep on adding bodies. Like any other club, you have to make space.
"I looked at us when we played at St Mirren and Gretna and you think that you need six or seven new players. Then you put in performances like last week at Hearts and against Falkirk and you think you only need two or three. But we need a bit of freshness about the place.
"We know the areas we need to strengthen and we will do that. We will lose one or two, we know that, but as long as we replace them..."
Before kick-off both sides formed a guard of honour for referee Alan Freeland to mark his last game before retiring, and then there was a minute's applause for former Kilmarnock and Celtic manager Tommy Burns who died on Thursday. Scores of scarves were laid out in tribute to Burns at a makeshift shrine outside the ground.
In the tenth minute, seconds after Paul Dalglish had missed the first of three great chances for the Ayrshire side by shooting over from 12 yards out, Moutinho's drilled shot from 25 yards put the visitors ahead. Killie's Moroccan midfielder Taouil levelled in the 24th minute with a deflected shot from the edge of the box and from then on, Kilmarnock dominated.
After several more chances went begging, Di Giacomo, on earlier for the hapless Dalglish, popped up to head Garry Hay's cross past Bairns keeper Robert Olejnik to let the Ayrshire side end their campaign on a high.
Falkirk can have no complaints although defeat meant they did not match last season's points tally. Their manager John Hughes praised his players for their achievement over the season but could not resist a dig at them for their last-day defeat.
He said: "It's been a wonderful season for a so-called provincial club. We have been punching above our weight for years so credit to the boys for getting that seventh spot. But that game against Kilmarnock told me why we didn't get into the top six. We have a lack of character. No matter where you are playing your football, you have to have the pride to win and that was missing."
The full article contains 713 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
