Kilmarnock looking to take early form into league game at Motherwell

Kilmarnock are looking to take their early form into this weekend’s game against Motherwell as they aim to win all three points at Fir Park.

The Rugby Park side have beaten both sides of the Old Firm at home and held Hearts to a 0-0 draw at Tynecastle in their last three games.

But Derek McInnes will not be getting too carried away and insists his side have not become world beaters overnight as they prepare to take on Stuart Kettlewell’s men on Saturday.

Killie haven’t conceded a goal in the last three games despite taking on three of the country’s big hitters and knocked Celtic out of the League Cup with a 1-0 victory in Ayrshire on Sunday.

Despite going through the whole of last season without a win against any of Glasgow’s big two they have now beaten both in the space of 15 days and the manager is keen to continue with the same level of performance when they return to league action in North Lanarkshire.

Speaking on Wednesday about the impact the win over last season’s treble winners has had on his squad he said: “We are naturally very pleased, there is a lot of feel good factor about the place, but it’s obviously only one cup-tie that we have got through and we have to get back to looking for three points in terms of league business, but I think anytime you beat a team of Celtic’s abilities you’ve got to take the good with that.

“We said at the time that we just try and park that now and look forward to the next round tie against Hearts and concentrate on our league form, particularly for these next two games before the international break.

“I think the players should take a lot of confidence from how they have started but Saturday presents a different challenge entirely.

“So we’ve got to make sure we are ready for that, I think regardless of when you play your Rangers, your Celtics and these teams, if you come off the back of a bad result it’s important you get focused on the next game as quickly as possible.

“Now that we have managed to beat Celtic in the cup-tie, I think it’s equally as important that we focus on Motherwell and that message has been sent loud and clear to the players.

“We’ve managed to get Innes Cameron back in training this week after he missed the game with an ankle injury. And we have Liam Donnelly, who took a wee bit of a knock in the game, back training with us as well, so a clean bill of health and hopefully we can take the good from the performances we have had but be ready for another challenge against Motherwell.

“Our expectations haven’t changed over the long-term, in the short term we want to keep this run going and the fact we have had three clean sheets against good opponents so naturally we are looking to do it again.

“We are looking for the same level of performance again against Motherwell, they are a form team, the run they have been on is fantastic so we are well aware they will be looking to bounce back from their defeat to St Mirren last week.

“They are strong at home and it’s important we treat the game with the same importance as we have in our last three games, and have the same demand on the concentration.

“If we can get the same level of performance then we certainly have a chance of getting the desired result.

“Motherwell will still think it’s a game they can go and win, we don’t become world beaters all of a sudden because we have had a good start, we’ve got to recognise the importance of doing a lot of the stuff that we have done right.”

McInnes also revealed he is still looking to improve his squad with another striker high on his list of priorities, but is not expecting to have anybody in in-time for the Motherwell game.

He said: “We are still hopeful we will get another striker in, but it’s looking unlikely that it will be in time for the weekend’s game.”