THE opening day of a new season brings with it a palpable sense of optimism. There are new signings, perhaps a different strip, and a fresh start.

It doesn’t matter if you escaped relegation by the skin of your teeth just two months before, almost every football fan turns up believing that this, finally, is going to be their year.

To then be turned over 4-0 on your home patch, and be relieved to keep the margin of defeat to that level, is a blow to the gut of all those with Kilmarnock close to their heart.

Despite being the only one to have been absolved of blame by manager Gary Locke for the capitulation against Dundee, it is cold comfort to goalkeeper Jamie MacDonald after picking the ball out of his net four times on his competitive debut.

“We want to get it out of our system,” MacDonald said. “That’s the thing in football, you just want to get to the next game and make amends for the previous week. It was a bad start for us and we were disappointed, especially after the way pre-season had gone – we were full of confidence.

“Now we’re looking forward to erasing the first game from our memories. Football’s all about winning games. It’s a team game, it’s not about personal performances. Of course it’s going to affect you. After any defeat, it doesn’t matter the manner of it, you always go home and think about it a little bit.

“Thankfully I now have a couple of kids, so I don’t have much time to think about it. I go home and get pestered, which is a good thing.

“We had an off day, but don’t take anything away from Dundee, I thought they were fantastic. It was one of the best team performances I’ve played against. They were excellent.”

After such an ordeal, probably the last thing you want to see on the fixture calendar is two dates with last season’s champions and runners-up, but that’s what Kilmarnock have to contend with over the next few days, with today’s trip to Aberdeen being followed by Celtic’s visit to Rugby Park on Wednesday night.

“It’s going to be difficult,” MacDonald said, “but the Dundee game has been a wake-up call.

“We have to lift it a lot if we’re going to get anything from these two games. There’s a good chance I’ll be busy in the next two games but we have been working all week to make sure we don’t give them the same amount of chances. That’s the challenge for the team and the players.

“There are still 37 matches to go and it’s something we can hopefully rectify against Aberdeen. They’ll obviously be bitterly disappointed after going out of Europe. I didn’t see much of the game but according to reports they were well in it and there was a great save by the goalkeeper in the last minute that stopped them going to extra time.

“They’ll be disappointed but the Europa League for Scottish clubs is almost a bonus if it happens. They’ll be fully focused on the league and doing well again domestically this season.”

The status of MacDonald as undisputed Rugby Park No 1 has been confirmed with the departure of last season’s custodian, Craig Samson.

“I don’t know what’s gone on between Craig and the club, that’s the decision they’ve both come to,” MacDonald said. “I was delighted to get the nod last week and that will hopefully carry on for the rest of the season.”