TOUGH WATCH WAS BREWING COME SUNDAY

Del in the dark whether secret supporters share touchline with him but he is in no doubt what fills their hearts... ENVY

- BY ALAN ROBERTSON

NEIL McCANN needed a strong 7am coffee to pore over a five-goal flop at Falkirk the morning after the night before.

But the Rugby Park boss reckons the pressure will go both ways tomorrow night when Premiership pacesetters Hearts come to relegation-threatened Kilmarnock.

And he's appealed to fans to keep the faith and turn out in numbers as the Jambos prepare to bring more than 4000 punters with them to Ayrshire.

The 51-year-old admits it's been a long two weeks after the Scottish Cup left them idle in the wake of a 5-1 bashing by the Bairns.

McCann says "everybody probably needed a bit of time to decompress, myself included" after a performance "totally out of character" since he had pitched up at the start of the previous month.

But he didn't have the luxury of putting off a rerun of the rout for a few days as the gaffer said:

"That watch with my first coffee at seven o'clock on Sunday morning was not a brilliant hour for me!