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Daily Record
Daily Record
National
Lochlin Highet

Kilmarnock play out season finale in front of thousands of partying fans

Kilmarnock's final match of the season merely got in the way of a party in the away end.

Ayrshire fans headed up to Kirkcaldy in their thousands as the Rugby Park side saw out their season with a 1-1 draw at Raith Rovers after winning the league against Arbroath last week.

It's not often supporters can head to a match knowing the result is irrelevant, but with the constant singing from the first whistle, it's fair to say the game wasn't the main thing on fans' minds.

Oli Shaw scored a stunning second-half lob which cancelled out Aidan Connolly's opener.

Rugby Park boss Derek McInnes said: “We didn’t play with any edge in the first half. Raith played as if there was something there for them.

“In the second half we put in a proper Kilmarnock performance like we’ve seen over the last wee while and scored a very good goal.”

A general view of Kilmarnock fans (SNS Group)

McInnes made six changes to the Killie XI with Chris Burke named as captain and teenager Charlie McArthur making his first league start with Killie.

Raith came out firing as Zach Hemming was forced to save from Dario Zanatta and Matej Poplatnik.

The hosts bagged the opener as Connolly’s strike took a deflection off league-winning hero Alston and wrongfooted Hemming.

It could have been more as Poplatnik saw another header saved before being forced off with a knock while Connolly turned a strike wide of the post with the goal at his mercy.

McInnes decided to make changes at the start of the second half with skipper Chris Stokes and Kyle Lafferty emerging for the second 45 minutes while Burke came off one minute after the restart for Dan Armstrong.

The changes made an immediate impact as Lafferty played his part in the equaliser.

Dean Campbell stepped infield and neat interplay between Lafferty and Alston saw Shaw clip the ball over Jamie MacDonald. The former Killie goalkeeper had made a fantastic save seconds earlier to deny Shaw from a rebound after the first attempt had struck the crossbar.

Fraser Murray and Stokes almost connected with a fine set play to the back post while Shaw lashed at a volley to put the ball over the bar.

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