Draw frustration is irritation, not crisis

The spectre of not being able to break down a low block is still looming over us like the big scary Muppet over Michael Caine last week.

Saturday was an annoyingly missed chance to prove we'd moved past it. Kilmarnock arrived second-bottom, winless since October and we knew exactly what was coming: 10 men behind the ball, compact lines, organised resistance. Yet, we couldn't find a way past it.

We dominated almost everything measurable. Possession. Territory. Entries into the final third. Forty-seven crosses. Eleven corners. If you'd looked at the heat maps afterward, the area around Killie's box would resemble Jackson Pollock's Walkman.

They defended deep. Lines squeezed tight, the space between defence and goalkeeper effectively theoretical. And to be fair, it was disciplined. Their shape rarely broke. Lanes were blocked, second balls contested, crosses met by a forest of bodies.

We moved the ball patiently, but the pattern became familiar: circulate, shift wide, cross, repeat. Against a block that compact, width alone isn't enough - you need the killer pass, the moment of genuine quality that forces defenders to move rather than simply absorb impact.

Chances did come. Dan Nlundulu's close-range effort is usually a goal, but Oluwayemi produced a reaction save worthy of any point. Score there and the game opens; Killie have to emerge, space appears, oxygen enters the match. We never got that breakthrough.

Jayden Richardson's introduction lifted the tempo. Conor McMenamin drifting centrally asked different questions. Effort was relentless. Structure held. And on a different day we could have been awarded a couple of penalties. What we lacked was incision: the cut-back instead of the cross, the disguised pass instead of the obvious one.

Two weeks ago - before Aberdeen, before the reset - this is a game we lose. Scrappy breakaway, collective wobble, frustration tipping into chaos as Kilmarnock briefly remember they're allowed in our half. Instead, we stayed composed. No overcommitting. No panic. Third clean sheet on the bounce. Five unbeaten.

This team is managing games better now. Controlling territory, limiting risk, refusing to self sabotage. If the loudest complaint is "we dominated but couldn't quite score", that's irritation, not crisis. Fine tuning, not fundamental failure.

Rangers on Tuesday will present a very different picture. They won't pitch a tent in their own box and refuse to engage with society. They have their own problems and will be anxious to remedy them in front of an easily turned Ibrox. But we go there unbeaten, organised, and carrying that cup-winning, Celtic-beating swagger.

The spectre remains.

But it's shrinking.

Andrew Christie can be found at Misery Hunters