After their 1-0 win against Ross County today, Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes believes they can achieve what “we thought would be beyond us” as they dream of securing European football next season.
Killie captain Kyle Vassell’s 60th-minute strike sealed another three points for McInnes’ men, who are now five points clear of St Mirren in fourth place.
The windy conditions were far from favourable for either set of players, but McInnes says he was pleased with his side’s concentration levels in a tricky game.
He said: “We spoke about the need for real concentration because those types of conditions can make you make mistakes and look silly.
“The clean sheet pleases me. There wasn’t much in the game but I thought we had more control than Ross County.”
“Sometimes these games are the best ones – 1-0, playing with real concentration. We weren’t brilliant but we didn’t need to be because one goal was enough today.
“I could come in here and pretend that I don’t bother about the other teams but we all rush at full-time to find out what the results are.
“The good thing for us is that we’re not depending on favours from anyone else – like last year when we stayed up all by ourselves.
“We’ve got into the top six through our own hard work.”
He added: “We could do with another few good weekends like this one to secure a European spot. But, with six games to go, I think there are still improvements in us. For us to get those improvements, the motivation has to stay high and it was high again here.
“We obviously got a huge dose of confidence from that first game of the season against Rangers.
“And we’ve just carried on from that really. We haven’t had any dips in form, we’ve always been really competitive, and the players deserve a lot of credit. Last week secured the top six and we knew if we could get the top six then we could be in the fight for Europe.
“But I don’t think anyone thought it and rightly so. Now we’re in the top six hopefully with two or three more wins we can achieve what we thought would be beyond us.”
