Kilmarnock 1 Dundee United 2 as Derek McInnes picks out positives despite losing in gruelling Scottish Cup clash

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Derek McInnes says there are plenty of positives to take despite being knocked out of the Scottish Cup by Dundee United.The Ayrshire side took the tie all the way into extra-time after Rory McKenzie cancelled out Marc McNulty's third minute opener.The Kilmarnock players left everything out on the park, but they were ultimately undone by Manchester United loanee Dylan Levitt who bagged a goal after 110 minutes of a gruelling match.The Rugby Park side had hoped to be in the hat for the last 16, but the focus will now switch to a crucial home clash against Inverness – and McInnes reckons his side will be fine if they keep turning in performances like that.He said: “Yeah it was a sore one to take, there were loads of aspects of the performance I was pleased with.“I was dying to help my team in extra time, but when you’re restricted with just one extra sub it’s hard.“I tried to be positive with the subs, we could have shored up the defence and played for penalties, but I didn’t want to send that kind of message out.“The risk and reward is always there, we had umpteen chances in the game to get that all-important second goal.

Then unfortunately for us when it came for United it was in the dying embers of the game.“The players gave absolutely everything, I have been here a couple of weeks now and that performance was miles better than what we had.“You can’t take any real pleasure in losing a cup tie, but I think the team responded to the fans and the fans responded to the team.“The players are responding to what we are asking of them, the intensity and speed is what we want and they took on a premier league team."He added: “Ultimately we need to dust ourselves down, take the positives and there’s things to learn from that game.