Derek McInnes 'not expecting much' transfer action during January window for Kilmarnock

Derek McInnes insists he is expecting a quiet January for Kilmarnock when the transfer window opens next month.

The manager says they might be looking to add one more forward player to the squad if the right man becomes available, but other than that he will be happy to go with what he has for the rest of the season.

Currently sitting in fifth place in the Premiership after 17 games following a strong first half of the campaign, including victories over Celtic and Rangers, the Rugby Park side are in a healthy position as they look to stay in the top six.

Speaking to the media ahead of their game against Livingston that could potentially see them jump into third with a win, McInnes said on January: “We don’t expect to see too much at all, we would like to add to the squad, I don’t there would be a manager out there who’d say they want to do nothing, I’d like to try and give us another attacking threat, but it’s always difficult to do that.

“We tried and tried and tried in the summer and January can be even more difficult but it doesn’t stop you trying.

“I’m quite happy where we are in terms of the squad and when we have everybody fit I probably have a bit of headache deciding who starts and who plays.

“Recently there’s been boys on the bench who have been unlucky not be starting. The lads behind the starting team are really driving the standards.

“You never say never and obviously January can throw up some injuries but we are not looking to do too much at this moment in time. If this was the last day in January then I wouldn’t be doing much other than maybe trying to bring in another attacking option.”

Killie beat Celtic 2-1 on Sunday after fighting back from a goal-down with an impressive second half performance to record their second victory over the league leaders this season.

That followed their first away win of the season when they defeated Aberdeen at Pittodrie a few days earlier and McInnes is hoping his players can take confidence from those wins to put a run together.

He said: “I took a lot of pleasure from it, the players put so much into the game and we got the outcome that we wanted for the effort.

“The second half performance, the amount of turnovers we had in their half of the pitch allowed us to get from that. It wasn’t just a case of stopping Celtic, it was a case of us actually playing well as well and creating chances.

“It was good for the players, it is only three points but none the less anytime you beat a team as good as Celtic you have to take the benefit from that.

“I have been pleased with the level of performance throughout the season but you don’t always get the results so it’s been a good few days beating Aberdeen and beating Celtic.

“It eases a wee bit of the frustrations we had from the game against Hearts, I felt we could have won that game with the performance we had. So we now go into this next block of games starting with Livi with an opportunity to keep winning games and getting used to winning games and take the confidence from beating Celtic.”

After failing to record any wins over the big two last season, Killie have now beat Celtic twice, once in the League Cup, and Rangers once already this season.

And he puts those victories down to having a stronger squad than last term

He said: “I think we have a better squad this season, that’s a simplistic answer but I think there is a better level of player here now. No disrespect to the players that were here last season, they done the job that was asked of them and we are eternally grateful for that.

“But this time around we had certain boxes we wanted to tick, winning away from home, beating Rangers and Celtic and just to deliver more consistent performances.”

They will be looking to make it three league wins in a row when they visit West Lothian to take on David Martindale’s struggling side on Saturday.