KILMARNOCK'S excellent start to the season continued with a deserved victory over Aberdeen in a goal-packed Co-operative Insurance Cup thriller.
With six goals, six bookings, umpteen near things and lots of good football, the 4,339 crowd got real value for money from a thoroughly entertaining match.
Irishman Connor Sammon gave the Rugby Parkers the perfect start when he opened the scoring
in 90 seconds. He chased a long ball forward from David Lilley; ran between Scott Severin and Zander Diamond and, although Bertrand Busso got a hand to his shot, he couldn't prevent Sammon from netting his first Killie goal from 12 yards.
But the Dons were level four minutes later, with former Killie favourite Gary McDonald returning to haunt his old side. Charlie Mulgrew's free-kick from the right was headed out as far as Sone Aluko and, when his 30-yard drive was blocked, the ball fell to the unmarkedMcDonald, who hooked it home from ten yards.
The goal feast continued on 13 minutes when the Ayrshiremen regained the lead courtesy of David Fernandez. Jamie Hamill fired over a tempting cross from the left, the Aberdeen defence appeared to cut it out, but the ball fell to Fernandez and from the narrowest of angles, almost on the goal line, he squeezed the ball behind Busso.
Two quickly became three with the Spaniard again involved. As he surged into the box he was man-handled by a couple of Aberdeen defenders; Dougie McDonald was content to let play continue but assistant referee Alan Cunningham raised his flag and, after a brief consultation, McDonald pointed to the penalty spot. Mehdi Taouil took the kick, sending Busso the wrong way as he stretched Kilmarnock's lead after just 17 minutes.
The visitors were back in the game on 26 minutes after the second penalty of the match. Darren Mackie's thrust down the inside right channel was illegally halted by Frazer Wright, who, unlike on Sunday against Celtic, on this occasion refrained from re-arranging his fallen opponent's hair, contenting himself with a short rant at assistant referee Gary Sweeney before Lee Miller sent Alan Combe the wrong way from the spot to cut the deficit to a single goal.
McDonald shot narrowly past the post shortly after the half-hour mark as Aberdeen battled for parity, but less than a minute later Kilmarnock restored their two-goal advantage when Sammon out-muscled two defenders and stretched out a leg to divert skipper James Fowler's deep cross from the right past Busso. At the end of a hugely entertaining first 45 minutes, there was no doubting that the hosts deserved their lead.
Both sides made half-time changes, Killie introduced Donovan Simmonds for two-goal Sammon, while Jimmy Calderwood sacrificed Mark Kerr in favour of the greater physical presence of Lee Mair in defence.
Aberdeen came close in 47 minutes, McDonald's close-range effort somehow deflected past for a corner. This was the first of several chances at both ends as the players maintained the furious pace and commitment of a real cup tie.
Killie had the better chances but were guilty of over-elaboration at times as they repeatedly cut-apart the Dons' defence and, after the first-half fireworks, neither side could add to the goals scored in the first half.
Kilmarnock: Combe; Lilley, Ford, Wright, Hamill; Fowler, Bryson, Pascali, Taouil; Sammon (Simmonds 46), Fernandez. Subs not used: Johnson, Murray, Skelton, Rascle.
Aberdeen: Bossu; Diamond, Severin, Mulgrew (Young 64); Hodgkiss, Foster, McDonald, Kerr (Mair 46), Soluko; Miller, Mackie. Subs not used: Wright, Maguire, Langfield.
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