Kilmarnock boss Stuart Kettlewell expecting a ‘proper test’ against Aberdeen

Kilmarnock boss Stuart Kettlewell expects nothing but the toughest of tests against struggling Aberdeen at Rugby Park on Wednesday night.

While the Ayrshire side are looking to bounce back from back-to-back William Hill Premiership defeats for the first time this season – to leaders Hearts and Rangers – Jimmy Thelin’s side are second bottom of the table, one point ahead of Livingston and with only three wins in 15 games in all competitions.

However, Kettlewell still regards the Dons as “absolutely one of the biggest clubs in the country”.

“There’re a team that have invested very, very heavily in the playing squad,” said the former Motherwell manager, who described defenders Lewis Mayo (calf) and Jamie Brandon (ankle/groin) who came off at Ibrox at half-time on Sunday as “serious doubts”, while midfielder Kyle Magennis is back training after a muscle complaint.

“You look at the wealth and riches that they’ve got throughout their group.

“So it’s going to be a proper test, no matter what anybody wants to think.

“The last two games we’ve played Hearts, who are flying high and against Rangers at Ibrox. You don’t get a pass, you don’t get an easy week.

“You don’t get a week where you just have to turn up and win a game of football.

“For anything that we’ve had this season, we’ve had to work exceptionally hard for it.

“We’ve had to be really well organised defensively and we’ve had to handle the ball well.

“As much as the errors we’ve had in the last couple of games, I don’t feel we’ve handled the ball as well as we have done, which can often take away that threat of the mistakes and the errors in the wrong areas of the pitch.

“So there’s a couple of messages for me that we need to get, we need to become more confident again in possession, because I don’t feel we’ve seen too many patterns that we would expect in the last couple of games.

“But we’re under no illusion, I think we’ve spent a lot of time post-Rangers having a look at Aberdeen in great detail.

“We had done a little bit before the game as well. They carry numerous threats throughout their team.

“They have some real quality and if we allow them to get their key players in possession of the ball, then they can hurt us. They can absolutely cause us a problem.”