KILLIE BARGA BARROWLOAD

Jul 11 2007 By Andy Galloway

KILMARNOCK’S shooting practice over in Italy has obviously paid off — they won a bounce match 14-0 against local team Barga on Monday night.

Colin Nish and Aime Koudou each scored a hat-trick while Garry Hay, Iain Flannigan and Eric Skora found the net twice. Paul Di Giacomo and Craig Bryson were also on target.

The pre-season friendly matches back home kick off on Monday night with a visit to Third Division Dumbarton.

But boss Jim Jefferies has been pleased with the trip to Il Ciocco and has seen a couple of injured players return to training.

He said: “It’s been terrific for us. It’s been hot weather throughout, and the players haven’t been off long so fitness levels have been good.

“The heat has been searing in the morning when we’ve started training and we’ve got some benefit from that.

“We’ve done work on our speed and stamina with recovery times between shorter distances.

“There’s also been some circuit work but we also allowed the players an early touch of the ball.

“Simon Ford and David Lilley have been able to join in, but Danny Invincibile still has a slight niggling injury which we have to be careful of.

“We took the game with Dumbarton to tie in with the one at Raith Rovers two days later.

“We have a decent size of first team squad and over those two games, every player will get as long as possible to play.”

Despite the good news that David Fernandez is ahead of schedule in his return from injury, there’s no chance of him featuring in the pre-season games.

The speculation over Steven Naismith has now died down, with Rangers officially withdrawing their latest offer, and the gaffer maintains his young prodigy is knuckling down to some hard work in Italy.

Jim added: “Steven was down to come with us on the trip and nothing prevailed. I think there has been a lot of made-up stuff, probably to unsettle him. He has been working extremely hard over here.

“We’ve had a fantastic lift with the news that David is ahead of schedule, but there’s no way he’ll play in pre-season.

“He’s done much more over here than expected, but it could be about September before he can play again.

“There are several players joining us over in Italy for the first time, and they will have been well warned by their teammates of what to expect.

“Everything is going to plan so far, ahead of the new season.”

Killie were due to face Barga again last night (Wednesday) before flying home today.