Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes hails 'ridiculously good' effort in win over Hearts

dailyrecord.co.uk:

Kilmarnock boss Derek McInnes heaped praise on his side after the battled to a 1-0 win over Hearts on Sunday - despite playing 84 minutes with just 10 men.Robbie Deas saw an early red card for a rash challenge on Kenneth Vargas, but that didn't stop the hosts jumping three places in the table and picking up a first win in seven - with their last victory having come at Tynecastle against Hearts in October.Bruce Anderson was the matchwinner with an 18th minute penalty after Joe Wright had been brought down inside the box by James Penrice.Killie were the better team for large spells despite Hearts having the nuemrical advantange with Craig Gordon making smart saves to deny Marley Watkins and David Watson, while a sturdy defensive display limited the visitors to little.Yan Dhanda almost snatched an undeserved draw for Hearts in the final moments with a curling strike from the edge of the box that clattered the crossbar but Killie held on for a vital victory.Afterwards, McInnes said: "The effort was ridiculously good.

Any time you go down to 10 men you need to give a performance and a half. We had to play the game a certain way. We had to stay within our shape."It’s my job to give us the best chance of winning the game.

When Bruce scores it gives us something to hold onto and too often we had our two centre forwards at the edge of our box so we needed to go to a flat midfield three."The boys were magnificent.

We’re having to work too hard too often this season because of the red cards but there’s only positives. Behind it all was a real effort and I thought the subs coming on and getting to the pace of the game did well too.