Delighted Derek McInnes has credited Kilmarnock’s mental strength, with Marley Watkins’ 87 minute goal proving enough to seal a memorable win over Rangers on Sunday.
Kilmarnock had made a slow start to the Scottish Premiership season as they attempted to juggle European qualifiers. But since being knocked out by FC Copenhagen, McInnes’ men have gone five league games unbeaten and are beginning to climb the table.
Watkins’ decisive strike kept up a recent trend which has saw Kilmarnock find late match-defining goals.
The Rugby Park club came from behind to score three times without reply from the 88th minute last time out against Dundee too.
It’s something that McInnes reckons is down to hard work on the training pitch that’s now paying dividends during the competitive fixtures.
“You can ask that to any manager when their team have got a history of scoring late goals,” said McInnes.
“For me, it illustrates fitness, it illustrates the strength of squad.
“It also illustrates a lot of time and real determination. I don't think any of my players at any point settled for 0-0. That wouldn't have been the worst result. Getting a clean sheet and you would take positives from the performance.
“Still I felt and still hoped it was a bit more on the bone for us. Thankfully, we managed to get that.
“I do think that we're well up. It's one of the trade-offs of playing in Europe competitively. We're well up and running.
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“The players physically are in a good place. They managed to train a few days in the international break. But we could afford to give them a few days off.
“The fitness of the players is good. Competitively, we've got loads of games under our belt. The trade-off for that, early in the season, domestically, we weren't quite at our best. Unable to be at our best.
“I thought tactically we were good. But more important when you play Rangers and the Celtics when they come here, it's that mental part of it.
“I thought the mental strength of the team was good. They always felt there was something, a win there for us. Thankfully, we managed to see that through.
“We've had a wee bit of a raw deal in terms of some of the fixtures. There's been an acceptance for me, not to say we're losing games, but there's an acceptance that when we play these teams the next time they'll see that we're a stronger opponent.”
