Kilmarnock’s Manager Derek McInnes Reflects on 1-0 Victory Over Hearts

Kilmarnock manager Derek McInnes stated that his team has “too often this season” had to contend with playing with 10 men, necessitating increased effort to secure a result. He drew a parallel to a previous match at St Mirren where they were “behind and go down to 10 men and manage to get something from the game.” McInnes highlighted that his side created “the best chances, more shots on target and we counter-attacked brilliantly,” emphasizing that when reduced to 10 players, “everyone has to give a performance-and-a-half. And that’s what we got.” He described the outcome as “a brilliant day and victory and it’s no more than we deserved.” While acknowledging that “When you dress it down, it’s just three points and three points we expected,” McInnes added that securing the win “the hard way” made it feel like “a brilliant three points” due to the circumstances. Regarding the red card incident, McInnes commented: “At the time I didn’t even think it was a yellow, because he slipped into it.” However, he conceded that “Having watched it again I can see why it looked nasty on VAR.” He noted that Referee Don Robertson “has indicated a scissors with his hands, but it’s not a scissors movement.” McInnes explained that “when you freeze the challenge Deas’ foot goes right on to Vargas’ ankle. I could see on VAR it looked terrible, but in the context of the game I thought he slipped and it’s not anything malicious.”