KILMARNOCK manager Jim Jefferies aims to put Falkirk deeper into relegation trouble this afternoon, even if it is at the expense of counterpart John Hughes who he believes has done a "terrific" job since taking over.
Kilmarnock are looking to move six points above the Clydesdale Bank Premier League's bottom club when they meet at Rugby Park. A Kevin Kyle hat-trick earned the Ayrshire side a comfortable 3-0 win over Falkirk last month, but today's visitors have si
nce cut the gap.
Jefferies, who managed Hughes at Falkirk, believes criticism of his former player from a section of fans is unfair, one season after the club were eight minutes away from making the top six.
"John Hughes has done a fantastic job there," Jefferies said. "Nobody knows him better than (assistant manager] Billy (Brown] and I as a character and a winner and how he hurts and how he'll fire his team up.
"He'll be disappointed with the last performance, but they have rallied from some of the criticism. They have responded in the right way. We have to make sure we get out there and focus on our own game and we know we have the advantage that when we do play well and do compete as well as we can, we've shown Falkirk just how good we are.
"But he has done a terrific job there and all the criticism he has been getting is just down to expectations."
Kilmarnock host Inverness and St Mirren following the visit of Falkirk, and Jefferies has urged his men to capitalise on home advantage.
"We've said you'll not get a better chance with three games at home," Jefferies said. "We won our last home game so we got the monkey off our back a wee bit there. The fans will get right behind us for these three games.
"If we beat Falkirk, we go into the next two home games back-to-back with six points with three games to go. That's a great advantage with the home games and the lift we'll get if we beat Falkirk."
Lee Bullen, meanwhile, is hoping Falkirk have discovered the winning habit at just the right point in the season. Following their Scottish Cup semi-final win over Dunfermline and last week's 2-1 home win over Motherwell, another victory this afternoon would lift them off the foot of the table for the first time since they slumped into the relegation spot at the beginning of March.
And defender Bullen, who is returning this weekend from a one-match suspension, is hoping these results could prove to be the turning point in what promises to be a tense run-in.
The 38-year-old said: "We keep giving ourselves opportunities to sneak off the bottom of the league and in the past we have fallen short. It wasn't that long ago that we went down to Kilmarnock and had the opportunity to move off the foot of the table – and we blew it.
"But it has been a while since we went into a game on the back of two wins. Losing is a habit, but so is winning and we took a lot of confidence from the semi-final win.
"It was a potential banana skin, but the lads performed tremendously well and justly got the victory.
"Saturday's game will be our biggest of the season – until our following game. That's the way it has been for the last six or seven weeks."
