DEREK MCINNES admits on-form Kilmarnock still have it ‘all to do’ in their bid to win promotion back to the Premiership.
The Rugby Park side have been favourites for the Championship title since slipping out of the top-flight with their play-off defeat to Dundee last season.
Stuttering form led to Tommy Wright being replaced by McInnes last month and his new-look team is showing signs of finally starting to gel.
Back-to-back wins over Dunfermline - who they face again this weekend - and Raith Rovers have propelled the Ayrshire men to joint top of the table, although Arbroath do have a game in hand.
But, after kicking off February with costly defeats to Arbroath and rivals Ayr United, McInnes is fully aware Killie have a massive challenge ahead.
The former Aberdeen and St Johnstone boss said: "People tell me we’ve got the best squad and all the rest of it.
“But the time to reflect properly is at the end of the season - not after winning a couple of games or losing a couple of games.
“We’ve got it all to do.
“At the minute, Arbroath have been the best team. If the league was to finish today, Arbroath have won the league and everybody would be asking why they never competed better.
“So, at the moment, we want to try to be the best team between now and the end of the season. That’s the challenge for us.
“If we can be that then we give ourselves a chance.
“It’s a challenge we’re working towards and the rewards are clear - and I want my players to go and meet that.”
Meanwhile, Scott Robinson - sidelined since January 8 - is back in light training after visiting a specialist this week about his foot injury.
McInnes added: “While we’ve scored a few goals of late, I still feel we’re going to need his ability and experience and his attitude to help us win games between now and the end of the season.
“He’ll be like a new signing for me him coming in if we can get him back sooner rather than later.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here