Stuart Kettlewell confident of Kilmarnock recovery after double penalty woe

Kilmarnock manager Stuart Kettlewell expects no hangovers from their painful double spot-kick blow as his side prepare to travel to Tannadice.

Kettlewell’s nine-match unbeaten run as Killie boss ended thanks to a controversial stoppage-time penalty against Celtic and they suffered more agony from 12 yards when they lost to St Mirren in a Premier Sports Cup quarter-final shoot-out five days later.

They had last weekend to get over the cup exit and Kettlewell is relishing the chance to move on when they face Dundee United in the William Hill Premiership on Saturday.

“The focus has been great, the quality and application on the pitch has been first class, and the mood and the body language is what I would expect it to be,” he said. “I don’t envisage any hangovers from two massive blows.

“It’s about working hard to try and come out the other side of that, to make sure that you change your fortunes.

“It’s not so much that we feel that we need to change loads, it’s just that we probably feel we need to come out the right side of a decision, maybe a break of the ball, a little bit of luck, because we don’t feel we’re too far away.”

Kettlewell did not feel the need to intervene to get his players feeling better about themselves again.

“One of the ways that I would suggest that we’ve done it is just simply by being here at the football club, by being on the pitch, sitting and eating together,” he said.

“The lads are very, very comfortable in their environment. I don’t go into the dressing room – it’s always been the way I’ve worked – until the match day.

“They’ve got various activities, a bit of table tennis, they throw some darts, just to have that light-hearted mood and be able to bring yourself back down to a level and spend a wee bit of time with your mates.

“We’ve got guys that stay local and they’re a really close-knit group. A lot of them are new faces and new lads that you can see that are gelling really well.

“We’ve got lads that stay slightly further afield, outside Kilmarnock, so you’ve got your car schools and all that type of stuff as well.”