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JEFFERIES BLAST PAYS OFF
Jefferies - furiious at half-time.
Kilmarnock boss Jim Jefferies admitted he was furious with his players at half-time against Division Two Brechin - but praised them for reacting to his dressing-room blast and booking their place in the Co-operative Insurance Cup third round.
The manager was raging on the touchline as his team repeatedly wasted possession during the first half at Glebe Park.
But he was more sedate after the interval as goals from Frazer Wright and Craig Bryson secured the victory for the Clydesdale Bank Premier League club.
Jefferies was annoyed at the way his front players surrendered the ball, thereby inviting Brechin to attack them, and believes the introduction of Willie Gibson in a tactical reshuffle at the break was key to his team's victory.
He said: "I wasn't happy with the way we played in the first half and I gave the boys a bit of stick at half-time.
"We didn't hold the ball up well at all and we put ourselves under a lot of pressure.
"We gave the ball away far too often and that let Brechin come on to us.
"The change I made at the break allowed Medhi Taouil to go more into the middle and he's such a skilful player.
"That swung things in our favour and for the first 20 minutes of the second half we really had them pegged in.
"We then set the tempo and bossed the game from there on.
"So although I gave the players stick at half-time they got plenty of praise when they came in at the end.
"We're delighted to be in the next round."
Brechin boss Michael O'Neill was pleased with his players' effort but criticised the sloppy way they surrendered Wright's opener.
His team did not defend a free-kick properly and were made to pay the price so the manager was left wondering what may have been.
He said: "We gave them a game all right but I'm disappointed with the first goal we lost.
"We've worked on defending free-kicks in training because they have a height and physical advantage over us but we didn't do our work properly and left their lad onside.
"We created a few chances in the first half and if we'd put one of those away then things maybe would've been different.
"We played well this season, maybe not at our best for long enough in games, but we'll pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday."
