Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes said he’s not focusing on league positions after seeing his side climb into the top six for the first time this season following last night’s 2-1 win at Hearts.
A quickfire second half double from Matty Kennedy and Kyle Vassell handed the Ayrshire men the three points – and a berth in the top half of the table.
But the gaffer insisted they still have to show they can produce a performance over 90 minutes despite the victory.
Hearts controlled much of the play in the first half, albeit Killie had the better chances with Vassell seeing an effort cleared off the line.
But the hosts opened the scoring just before the break when the away side failed to deal with a quick throw-in, which eventually led to Blair Spittal teeing up Alan Forrest to slam home at the back post.
However, Vassell outmuscled Frankie Kent inside the box just prior to the hour mark with the ball falling into the path of Kennedy, who found the far corner for the leveller.
Five minutes later, Killie were in front when Vassell once more proved too hot to handle inside the box as he swivelled away from Kye Rowles and fired home what proved to be the winner.
McInnes said: “I’m actually not too hung up on that (top six) at the minute.
“I’ll be honest, the win is important, but I think over the first two rounds of games, obviously after the European exploits at the start when we shipped away a couple of games, to be in the top six at this stage is pleasing, but I’m genuinely not really looking at that.
“I just want us to knuckle down and try and go on another unbeaten run. Just try and find as many of them as we go through the season. We managed to do that quite often last year and we got the reward for it.
“It’s important that we just try and get a stronger 90-minute performance. Sixty minutes was enough to get the job done, but it might not be on Sunday and we need to make sure we remind ourselves that we need to be a bit better from the outset.”
He added: “I thought we wasted the first half hour, to be honest. I thought the messaging from us was to try and come here and be a wee bit more forthright and impose ourselves in the game.
“Obviously we’re up against a team who have got a lot of good players and it’s not going to be easy to do that.
“I thought Hearts were arriving at the edge of our box too often, too many corners, free kicks going into our box and I thought we were playing with fire.
“Ironically, our best spell was the last 15 minutes of the first half but we lose the goal in that period from switching off at the throw-in and I don’t think we quite react well enough.”
McInnes, though, insisted that he believed there would only be one winner once Kennedy snatched the equaliser, saying: “We spoke at half-time about what exactly we want to be and try to play with a bit more purpose, a bit more bite.
“A brilliant finish from Matty Kennedy and because he scores early enough in the second half, I think that it gives both teams still time to probably think they can go and win.
“I thought we came onto Hearts. I thought we pressed better, our passing was better and I thought we broke better.
“There was no real surprise to me when we got the second goal and thankfully Kyle gets the all-important winner.
“I’m delighted for him, being the captain, being a big figure for us. Sometimes he gets the raw end of the stick at times, but his job is to score goals as well as everything else he does brilliantly.”