Derek McInnes admits Robby McCrorie is still ‘learning on the job’ ahead of his emotional first return to Ibrox as Killie keeper.
But the Rugby Park boss insists he’s as trustworthy as ANY of the keepers he’s worked with as they prepare to face Rangers on Wednesday night hoping to complete a famous double. Kilmarnock have yet to hit the heights of last season which saw them clinch a European spot, but they at least ended a run of three defeats in a row with a draw against Dundee at the weekend.
They will go to Ibrox as huge underdogs, however, they can take plenty of confidence from a 1-0 win against Philippe Clement’s men back at the start of October in Ayrshire. McCrorie kept a clean sheet that day on his first game against the side he was at for ten years before moving to Rugby Park in the summer. And McInnes has plenty of trust in his keeper.
He said: “I just like my keeper to make the saves I expect him to make every now and then, I’ve worked with a lot of goalies who can pull off the big save and it may be the big save that gets you something but I just want a trust in my goalkeeper, I want him to make the saves I expect him to make. And I kind of feel that with McCrorie.
“He’s obviously learning on the job, he’s 26 maybe now and he’s played the same amount of games as maybe a 19, 20 year old so we’re all learning with him so he’s learning on the job too really. But what he has got is good attributes, he made a good save against Dundee.
“It was still a save I’d expect my goalkeeper to make and as long as he keeps doing it then hopefully he gets the opportunity to show even more of himself, but we’ve got two good goalkeepers here. I think he’ll be in familiar territory obviously. The reason he’s with us is because he never played so many games at Rangers but over a period of time he was very at home, that was his home for a long time.
“There’s no doubt when you’ve served at a club for so long, there is that emotional aspect of it but I’m sure the motivation to come away from Rangers for Robby is still there. He’s still got it all to do he’s still got to keep showing week in, week out he’s a capable goalkeeper.
“It didn’t quite happen the way he wanted it at Rangers but there were always good keepers ahead of him so he should just go there and not overthink it and just try and be the keeper we expect him to be and hope he is.”
And McInnes, who is hoping Matty Kennedy and David Watson can return from injury, is well aware of what to expect at Ibrox despite their domestic woes compared with excellent European performances. He said: “I think what we’ve got to expect going there is just to try and reference a lot of what we did against them here not so long ago.
“It’s a totally different environment, a totally different set of circumstances but the game’s still the game and it’s important that we try and be as good as we were individually you almost need to be perfect out of possession when you’re playing a team of Rangers’ quality.
“They’ve shown what they’re capable of particularly in Europe. So we’re well aware of Rangers, they have got players that if given time and space and a chance to really enjoy the game, then they can have that impact. You don’t see it all the time but they’ve certainly got that and I think they’ll be buoyed from the fact that they had such a strong performance in France last week.
“I think any time I’ve managed a team going to Rangers you’ve always got to expect a tough evening and for my team to do as well as we possibly can individually and be almost pitch perfect as I say out of possession. But we’ve also got to demonstrate a confidence that we’ve won at Hearts a few weeks back and beaten Rangers already.
“My players have got to have gone to the pitch feeling confident with their work because if you’re not confident with your work then there’s only going to be one outcome.”