Neil McCann confident he can hit the ground running at Kilmarnock

New manager Neil McCann is confident he can make an instant impact at Kilmarnock.

The former Dundee boss has succeeded Stuart Kettlewell after Killie’s run without a William Hill Premiership game extended to 14 games under caretaker boss Kris Doolan.

McCann will start with a crucial encounter against the William Hill Premiership’s bottom club Livingston, who are four points adrift of Killie.

The 51-year-old, who returned to TV punditry after a spell on Barry Ferguson’s interim Rangers coaching team last season, said in a club video: “It’s going to be difficult, of course it is. I’ve done enough work outside of football to do a good appraisal in terms of the Premiership and the qualities within it.

“But equally I’ve looked at our group in great detail and I’m very confident that we can make an impact here.

“I do believe that we’ve under-performed and I do believe there’s a lot to come from this existing group, right now.

“Generally, when you find yourself going into a position, more often than not it’s through unfortunately someone losing their job and maybe the team not performing as well as it should.

“And that’s absolutely the position I found myself in previously and we’ve always got very, very good results.”

McCann has been looking for potential new recruits.

“It started very early when I took the call to say I had been chosen for the job,” he said. “That hard work will continue.

“What my experience has taught me is that January is a very difficult month, whether it be players coming in or players going out.

“But I need to concentrate on what I’ve got at my disposal right now because there’s no guarantees that someone will come in through the door.

“There’s areas of the pitch I want to improve on, but the most important thing for me is that there’s things to work with here.

“It’s not a position where we find ourselves where we can’t do anything about it. We absolutely can.”