Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes heaped praise on super sub Bobby Wales as the youngster blasted home a late equaliser in his side’s 1-1 draw against Dundee at Rugby Park.
The 19-year-old made an immediate impact as he rifled his first league goal for the club beyond Dees keeper Jon McCracken just two minutes after coming off the bench.
The draw ends a run of three straight losses for the Rugby Park side, but results elsewhere mean they fall to within just a point of second-bottom Hibs heading into the midweek round of fixtures.
McInnes said: “When we’re looking for a bit of calmness, quality and a bit of composure, I thought Bobby Wales gave us that.
“It’s a fantastic finish and good on him. We tried to be brave and keep as much attacking threat on the pitch as possible.
“We’re missing a bit of creativity with Matty Kennedy being out. Matty’s arguably been our best player this season but I thought the boys who haven’t been playing a lot like Gary Mackay-Steven and Fraser Murray contributed to the game but it’s a game we feel disappointed not to have won.”
He added: “Bobby still has things he has to improve at. He’s an honest boy and we have conversations. With his back to goal he can still be better but in terms of finding space and manufacturing chances for himself, he’s got that in him.
“He has the intelligence to come off the left-hand side. We had people snatching at things and thankfully he doesn’t – he makes a clean connection and it’s a brilliant finish.”
McInnes confessed his side got off to a slow start against the Dees and a half-time pep talk provided a much needed spark after the interval.
He said: “It has to be said we were slow out of the blocks, for the first 10 or 15 minutes. We looked a bit unsure of ourselves in that early period but we came through that.
“We spoke at half-time about why we set up that way with the three strikers. Dundee at times played quite deep with their back three and we wanted to try and find that space in between in wider areas.
“The performance in the second half was exactly what we were looking for.
“I thought we looked in a good way but when we’re on top, we’ve got to make hay and get ourselves in front.”