Rory McKenzie understands the anger of the Kilmarnock support better than anyone - because he is one of them. A born and bred Killie fan, McKenzie is in his seventeenth season playing for his boyhood club.
He admits Saturday night's limp Premier Sports Cup exit to 10-man Aberdeen at Rugby Park is up there with the toughest moments he has encountered in that spell. McKenzie suffered top-flight relegation with Killie five years ago, but the winger looked every bit as sick as he emerged from the aftermath of the quarter-final penalty shootout defeat to the Dons, who had played for over an hour with a man less.
A missed chance at Hampden
McKenzie was part of the Kilmarnock side that ran Celtic close in the 2022 League Cup semi-final and had his heart set on only a second Hampden appearance. He knew this might be his last chance to go to the national stadium. Instead, the 32-year-old and his team-mates must lift themselves from the doldrums to face another huge evening in the Premiership at Easter Road tonight.
A rotten Premiership start to the campaign sees them sitting rock bottom of the table with one point from five games and pressure mounting on boss Neil McCann. Furious McCann said he hoped his players were hurting after Saturday's flop. In the case of McKenzie, there was absolutely no doubting it.
'I feel the fans' pain'
He said: "Of course, I'm a fan, I feel it. I text my family before the game, one of the best days I've ever had was going to Hampden. I'm getting on in my career and it could be the last chance I get. Believe me, I feel the fans' pain. I know how it feels. I don't think it will get much tougher to be honest."
"I know what it takes, I've only done it once, but we won't get a better chance of getting to a semi-final than that. It was on a plate for us. 1-1, man sent off. We just failed to capitalise and didn't play with enough intensity. The balls in the box were really easy for Aberdeen to defend what they had."
"As soon as you get the penalties, it's a lottery. Especially with our record, it's a poor record. It's another one. Countless times at this stage of the competition we've not gone through. I don't know how many times against Aberdeen that's happened. Probably not in those circumstances, playing against 10 men, but it doesn't get any tougher than that, just the way we limped out."
Penalty shootout disaster
Even the penalty shootout was a disaster for Killie, who went ahead after Max Stryjeck saved Nesta Guinnes-Walker's first spot kick - only for McCann's men to then miss their next three. McKenzie said: "The boys were brave enough to step up. It wasn't to be. We could probably have had more conviction with the penalties, that's the only thing. But they were brave enough to step up. At that point, it's just a lottery."
McCann never missed his players at full-time on Saturday. The fuming manager said they had let themselves down - and urged them to use the hurt and anger as fuel to down Hibs and get their Premiership campaign off and running. A home clash with Hearts follows on Saturday night.
McKenzie said: "There wasn't much said in the dressing room on Saturday but I hope everyone's feeling the same way as I am. There's no other way. But we can't dwell on it. Tuesday's a massive game and we've got a tough run of games. We need to start picking up points. It's going to hurt, it's going to hurt way beyond Tuesday. But we just need to pick ourselves up."
