Derek McInnes says Kilmarnock’s Europa League adventure ‘there to be enjoyed’

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes has stressed to his players to make the most of the club’s return to European football for themselves and the supporters.

Killie host Cercle Brugge on Thursday in the second qualifying round of the Europa League at a sold-out Rugby Park, which is hosting its first European game in five years.

With the previous sojourn into foreign competition starting and ending with defeat to Connah’s Quay Nomads in the first weeks of Angelo Alessio’s short reign, it is 23 years ago that Killie fans got the chance to travel overseas, when they took on Viking Stavanger, and the first opportunity for many of the players to compete at this level.

McInnes has only signed two players this summer, Bruce Anderson and Robby McCrorie, and wants his squad to reap the rewards of their efforts in sealing fourth place in the Scottish Premiership.

“It’s important that you remind yourself that it’s there to be enjoyed, the whole opportunity of competing in Europe,” said McInnes, who guided Aberdeen into European qualification in all seven of his full seasons at Pittodrie.

“It doesn’t come around every year. For a club like Kilmarnock we would like to get to the stage where it becomes more frequent, but it’s important that we try and make the most of opportunity.

“You see the response from the supporters – both home and away tickets sold out. That tells you the impact it has on the club and everything else.

“But for us in the professional part we get the benefit of last season’s efforts now and we’ve got to try and make the most of the most opportunity. It’s important in any cup you try and generate as many good moments and go as far as you can.

“We’ve already made money for the club in qualifying for Europe, but proper prize money can be there for the club as well, so that aspect of it doesn’t go unnoticed from us as well.”

McInnes recalled his first game in charge of Killie, against Queen of the South at Dumfries in the Championship 30 months ago, with away fans unable to travel because of Covid restrictions.

He added: “There’s plenty of boys who have been there since I came in and a lot of players have been here a lot longer than me. We said, can you enjoy it? You can enjoy the build-up to it but, having been a player, you don’t enjoy losing games of football.

“I want us to try and make sure that we enjoy the winning and the performance rather than just the occasion.”

McInnes has also impressed on his players their duty in letting the travelling supporters fully enjoying their trip to Belgium next week

“It’s only right to say there’s 2,500 fans going and a lot of them probably couldn’t afford to shell out the money to go next week, so (we know) the importance of making that the best trip for them,” he said.

“The best trip is winning a game and winning the tie next week, so this is a start here.

“There’s a generation of Kilmarnock fans who have not really had this opportunity to travel abroad with the team and and we want to try and make the most of it.”

McInnes will be without Kyle Magennis as the midfielder builds up his fitness following last season’s injury issues, while he remains keen on re-signing Corrie Ndaba. The defender would not have been ready to play against Brugge even if signed in time.