Tromso boss starting to see the light as results improve before Killie clash

Joint-manager Gard Holme is adamant relegation-threatened Tromso are starting to find their groove ahead of their Europa Conference League third qualifying round tie against Kilmarnock.

The Norwegian side are 13th in the 16-team Eliteserien, just two points off the bottom. However, they believe they are in good fettle for the first leg of their showdown with Killie at Rugby Park on Thursday after enjoying an improvement in form since losing their opening five games of the league campaign, which started in April.

“We started the league a little badly,” said Holme, speaking at Tromso’s pre-match media briefing at Rugby Park on Wednesday. “The first five games were tight games but we couldn’t get any results, so we were all the way at the bottom but it’s become much better now.

“The last 10 to 15 games have been much better, so now we’re slowly getting the results we want.

“It’s a very tight league in Norway now. Almost all teams beat everybody, so hopefully we can be at least some positions higher in the league.

“We feel that we are going into the tie in good shape. We’ve been quite strong lately. Of course the last game (a 1-0 defeat at Rosenborg) wasn’t the best for us but the games before that we were very satisfied with, so hopefully we can continue on that.”

Kilmarnock’s plastic pitch often attracts gripes from their Premiership rivals – all of whom now play on grass – but the Rugby Park surface is not an issue for Tromso.

“We have very much experience on astro, we play on it ourselves,” said Holme. “A lot of the teams in Norway play on that naturally because of the climate part. There’s a lot of artificial grass.”

Tromso flew into Scotland on Tuesday. Asked why they travelled as early as two days before the match, Holme said: “Some logistics about the travel and also a little bit so that we can train here.

“Even though it’s artificial it’s a little bit different type of pitch than what we are used to so it’s good for us to test our surroundings.”Show less