Tommy Wright insists Kilmarnock must find a cutting edge after his dug-out return ended in defeat to Motherwell to plunge his side deeper into relegation trouble.
Allan Campbell’s second half strike at Rugby Park pushed the Steelmen closer to the stop six while making it six defeats on the spin for the Ayrshiremen.
Wright must now pick his troops up for tough back to back away games at Ibrox and Pittodrie in their battle to beat the drop but insists there was plenty to be encouraged by on his bow.
Killie dominated for large parts of a dire game but failed to create any clear-cut chances and they were hit by a sucker punch as Campbell made it two goals in as many games following his strike in the defeat to Celtic.
It was a third win for Well boss Graham Alexander whose side are now just four points off top six but there is work to be done for Wright to pull his side away as they sit just a point above second bottom Ross County.
And the former St Johnstone boss said: “Most certainly I’m encouraged. I have been encouraged since I came in with the quality in the squad.
“We will work with them. We know the areas we have to improve and they just have to persevere with it. We bossed possession. We worked on getting the ball into wide areas and creating overloads in those areas to get balls in the box.
“We did that and had numerous attempts on goal but the quality of those attempts didn’t trouble the goalkeeper enough.
“We will keep working in training, keep getting into the areas, and sometimes you need a little bit of luck. Some great crosses came in and it might have needed to come off a Motherwell player’s knee to go in the back of the net just to change things for you.
“But in terms of how we wanted to play and the areas we wanted to try and hurt them, we did that. What was missing was a goal and an end product.
“That was for various reasons, the two centre-halves won everything we put into the box and we probably didn’t have the right type of movement in the box, and probably the quality of crosses at times wasn’t good enough.
“But in terms of controlling a game of football, and I know that doesn’t always win you games and that’s the perfect example, we deserved at least a point.
“Ultimately, though, we have just been caught as so often happens when you are in the run we’re in. It was a quick throw and we lost our shape a little bit.
“At no stage of the game did Motherwell cause us a problem from open play but they have won the game and Graham will be a happier manager than me.
“His side have defended well. The two centre-halves have won everything going into their box. The harsh reality is we didn’t get anything and we have got to be big enough to move on.”
Wright last stood in the dug-out 11 months ago when he led St Johnstone to a 1-0 win over Livingston before the season was halted due to Covid and he quit McDiarmid Park just two month later.
At his Killie unveiling, the 57-year-old told how his Fitbit informed him he’d walked the length of the Sahara during his stint out of the game.
The image of the African desert was a world away from the reality of his return to football with sub-zero temperatures in east Ayrshire for the visit of the Steelmen.
And after losing weight in lockdown he had to gain points for Killie who have slipped dangerously close to the relegation zone which resulted in Alex Dyer’s departure.
Wright’s former assistant Callum Davidson was in the stand on a scouting mission but it was his new No. 2 Paul Stephenson, a former Newcastle United team-mate, who prowled the technical area as the new boss took a back seat in the stand.
He would have been relatively happy with what he witnessed from his side but it was all a bit frantic in the first half with no real quality or chances of note apart from a Clevid Dikamona header from Chris Burke’s free kick deflected wide inside two minutes.
Wright left his seat and took his place in the dug-out for the second half as his team went in search of that crucial first goal which the game badly needed.
But, before their opener arrived, the visitors came agonisingly close to breaking the deadlock when Colin Doyle pulled off a point blank save to deny Devante Cole who got on the end of Ricki Lamie’s flick-on from a free kick into the box.
And then they did find the net with a brilliant sweeping move and great work from Tony Watt who played a lovely crossfield ball for Campbell to run onto and the midfielder took it in his stride before firing in off the underside of the crossbar.
Killie had so much of the ball in the wide areas without much success but it almost paid off in injury time when substitute Youssouf Mulumbu’s cross found Nicke Kabamba but his header was straight into Liam Kelly’s arms.
