Kilmarnock boss expects to face a confident Hibernian side at Easter Road

Stuart Kettlewell expects Kilmarnock to face a Hibernian outfit imbued by European confidence at Easter Road on Sunday.

David Gray’s side return to Edinburgh following an impressive 2-0 away win against Partizan Belgrade in the first leg of their Conference League third-round qualifier on Thursday night.

In what was a good week for Scottish football, on the same night Dundee United drew 2-2 with Rapid Vienna in Austria, at the same stage of the competition, while Rangers beat Viktoria Plzen 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League third qualifier at Ibrox on Tuesday night.

Ahead of their first away William Hill Premiership fixture of the season, Killie boss Kettlewell, who is still looking for a couple of new faces before the transfer window closes, ruled out any notions of fatigue among his opponents.

He said: “If I shifted myself into, for example, Davie’s shoes, Hibs’ shoes, even Dundee United, you are looking at another terrific result, Rangers, I think you grow in confidence.

“That’s how I would always look at it. I wouldn’t see the fatigue factor.

“I wouldn’t start to talk about the travel and all the rest of it.

“We, as football teams and football managers, always talk about momentum, we always talk about positivity and I think those types of results and those types of performances build positivity.

“So I would imagine we’ll see a fresh, hungry enthusiastic Hibs side with plenty of quality. And guys like myself will look at what’s in reserve, what’s on the bench.

“When you look at the investment that has been put into that Hibs squad, when you look at the quality of player that’s sitting on the bench, potentially to freshen them up as well, you could stake a claim for a number of those guys playing in their side and getting a similar result as well.

“So if they choose to make those changes in fresh and things up, then I think you’re still going to see a very strong Hibs side.

“It’s a team that were strong, obviously, for a chunk last season. especially the second part and built a strong home record as well as being good on the road.

“And to go away from home, as difficult a tie as they did have, to win that 2-0 to get your clean sheet, I don’t think they would have dreamt that much better than it was.

“So very good for Hibs, very good for Scottish football, if we want to then strip it back for that but obviously my concern is Kilmarnock and what that means for us.

“I think it just means that it’s going to be a really difficult game for us on Sunday. It would have been anyway, irrespective of the result.

“But I think that that’s something that probably just gives Hibs that extra boost and that extra bit of confidence.”