As an Ayrshire lad, nothing means more to Rory McKenzie than three points in the county's derby.
Ayr United grabbed the bragging rights in February, and the Kilmarnock star admits it was tough to deal with.
But luckily for the Rugby Park side the chance to make amends came within a month – and they took it by the scruff of the neck on Friday night as they fired three goals into the Somerset Road end in the opening 16 minutes, an eventual 3-1 victory that sent Killie top of the league.
And McKenzie opened the scoring in just four minutes, it's his second Ayrshire Derby goal – the first coming in a League Cup clash back in 2014.
And he's revealed how much it meant to him: “I was absolutely delighted, that one meant a lot to me.
“It was a long day thinking about it, waiting to play, especially after the last derby. It was a massive result, it really was.
“As a local guy it meant a lot, I hadn’t even made plans for the weekend as I was waiting for the result!
“It was an electric start, Fraz [Murray] was unbelievable with his deliveries.
“That’s what the manager wanted, a start like that. But we made it a hell of a lot more difficult than it had to be."
And when asked how nice it was to slam home the opener in front of the Ayr fans, McKenzie chuckled: “Aye it was nice, I enjoyed that one!
“I’ve been lucky in that sense, there was a derby I scored late on in a few years ago (2014), but that one felt very good."
The result combined with Arbroath losing 3-0 at Inverness ensured Killie head into the final furlong at the cinch Championship summit.
With seven games to go, Killie are in pole position to bounce back to the Premiership at the first time of asking.
McKenzie said: “We’ve had a lot of chances to go top this year, Friday night games, but we hadn’t taken them.
“With us playing first this weekend it was a chance to send a message.
“The Arbroath result was irrelevant, we just need to make sure we are winning games.
“If we win the rest of our games then we win the league, that’s the way we need to look at it.
“We will take it one game at a time though, next up is Queen of the South and they’re in good form.
“That’s the thing with this league, everyone has something to play for, every game is a massive one.
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