Derek McInnes calls for ‘bravado’ as Kilmarnock seek overdue away win

Derek McInnes wants a bit more “bravado” from his Kilmarnock side to get their first Premiership win of the season when they face Ross County on Saturday.

The Rugby Park club are sitting sixth in the league after 13 games but are yet to win an away league game this season in six attempts.

Killie go into the game against the Staggies – who will be under new boss Derek Adams for the first time – on the back of a 1-0 defeat by Hibernian at Easter Road before the international break and the Killie boss is looking for better results on the road.

McInnes said: “I can analyse it to death but I think the best gauge for me is level of performance. The level of performance against Hibs was good.

“We have not had a bad performance on the road this season but the results haven’t mirrored our home form.

“We have had a lot of good moments in games and penalty box entries – I think we are fourth in the league behind Hearts and the Old Firm for touches in the opposition box – and we get up the pitch well and move the ball well but at Easter Road we were just looking for that bit of quality.

“The stats show that we don’t get as many shots on target when we are away from home. It is something that can easily be addressed in terms of analysis but in terms of performance it is different to last year.

“Last year we were poor on the road a lot of times, we deserved exactly what we got particularly in the early part of the season.

“This season doesn’t feel the same but obviously we still need to get results on the road and if we get something close to our home form we will be alright.

“But I am not getting caught up with it. I don’t want it to become a thing and hopefully we can go and put in a performance like we did at Easter Road but try to show a bit more quality, try to show a bit more confidence in the final bit, have a bit more bravado about us rather than snatching at things and overthinking things.

“We are a bit more instinctive with our work at Rugby Park and I just feel we get a lot more shots on target when we are at home.

“It is something we have spoken about to the players but I am not getting too caught up in level of performance, they have been decent.”