Derek McInnes delight as Kilmarnock beat ‘overconfident’ Tromso to make play-off

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes was delighted to see his players vindicate his faith and put Tromso in their place.

Joe Wright’s deflected 11th-minute header earned Killie a 1-0 win in Norway and set up a Conference League play-off against FC Copenhagen, who reached the knockout stages of the Champions League last season.

McInnes watched Tromso celebrate after their 2-2 draw at Rugby Park last week and felt they were taking his side too lightly.

“They thought they had one foot in the next round,” he told BBC Scotland. “I felt that last week. I thought there was an overconfidence from them.

“We spoke about that. I thought we were the better team, the stats show that we were the better team last week.

“I don’t think we’re allowed to play like that again but we still had some good moments first half when we played round their shape and got Matty (Kennedy) involved in the game.”

Kennedy and Kyle Vassell also had first-half chances before Killie frustrated Tromso after the interval, surviving a couple of scares when a goal was disallowed for a tight offside and a header crashed off the bar from three yards.

After losing seven goals in their first two league matches, McInnes felt they had rediscovered the defensive solidity that got them into Europe.

“We had so many games where we got results all over the country and Rugby Park that were about being resilient, difficult to play against, strong defensively, really responsible, everything we weren’t really on Sunday.”

Killie lost 3-0 against St Johnstone on Sunday following Wright’s early red card and McInnes was delighted to see the centre-back atone.

“Joe was in such a poor place on Sunday,” he said. “He felt he let everybody down and it just shows you, in football there’s always another game and Joe is now the guy that makes the difference for us.”