Derek McInnes says Kilmarnock must be at ‘full pelt’ against Hibernian

Derek McInnes says Kilmarnock will have to be at “full pelt” as usual if they are to get any joy at home to Hibernian on Sunday.

The Rugby Park outfit are recovering from their Conference League efforts where a 1-1 draw against Copenhagen in the second leg of their play-off at home on Thursday night saw them lose 3-1 on aggregate.

The Killie boss enjoyed the club’s return to Europe this season but the Ayrshire outfit now have to get back to domestic duties and the William Hill Premiership, where McInnes believes every ounce of effort will be required if they are to get their first league win of the season to get off the bottom.

The Kilmarnock boss said: “I’d like to be full strength and I’d like to put my strongest team out on the pitch every time we play a game, because you’re judged on your team, and we’ve not been able to do that, that is a fact.

“So I’ve enjoyed the pace of it (European football) and getting to know the opposition quickly and trying to deal with them but I’m not the one that’s running about.

“The staff are in every day, we’re working, and we know we have got the international break coming up where we can get a bit of a switch-off but the players are the ones that have to really work hard.

“And we’ve never been a team who can rely on just being good enough without working at full pelt.

“The reason we were playing in Europe is because we leave everything out there on the pitch.

“There’s no bundles of quality, and we can play a slower type of game. The fact of the matter is we have to be at full pelt to get positive results.

“We nearly got one on Thursday and we need to try and be at full pelt on Sunday, the best way we can.”