Derek McInnes admits it’s frustrating heading into the Premier Sports Cup undercooked.
The Kilmarnock boss watched his side drop two points against Partick Thistle on Wednesday night, and he knows today’s clash against Montrose is must-win.
But with six weeks left of the transfer window, the Killie boss knows that his side is nowhere near complete – which annoys him as he doesn’t want to devalue a national cup competition.
Speaking ahead of the trip to Links Park, the Rugby Park gaffer said: “I hear the part-time teams arguments, a lot of them don’t get their squad together fully until the last minute, they have got jobs and holidays to think about.
“Even for us when you’re trying to shape a squad for the season ahead, you have got a lot to do, so this competition comes a bit too early for all of us.
“We don’t want to devalue it, it’s an important competition in our calendar so we need to make sure we give ourselves the best chance.
“But it can test your ability to be as prepared as you need to be, I don’t think we’re as prepared as we want to be for a cup competition, and you could probably say that about most teams to be honest.
“It’s the first time I’ve been involved in the group stages, our objective was to win the group and it still is, but we have to win our last two games to have a chance.
“It feels a but rushed at this stage to play the games, but I am not complaining as we are in it now so we need to try and do our best.”
Kyle Lafferty remains out with a back injury, and with the likes of captain Chris Stokes, Scott Robinson and Blair Alston all on the treatment table, it’s giving McInnes selection headaches for today’s clash.
He said: “We still have too many players injured for my liking, it is that time of the season that we are getting players ready, so we’re not the only team with bumps and bruises.
“We will sit with the medical department and decide who can travel and who can’t.
“Hopefully we will get a few off the treatment table and get another couple of players in in the next week or so which will help us look stronger for the Dundee United game.
“But despite that we have a squad that’s good enough to go to Montrose and win a cup tie.
“We know it will be tough, they did well last season. Stewart Petrie has done a very good job with them.
“In particular they are very strong at home, but we know the importance of winning if we want to have a chance of going through.
“Two wins should give us a good chance of at least getting us one of the best runner-up spots, but anything less than 10 points won’t, so we need to make sure we win these two games.”
New signing Joe Wright, who was on trial at Hearts until last week, said: “I had a week at Hearts and played a few games which was good, it was a useful week.
“They were looking for something a bit different, but I am delighted to be at Killie and I am excited to get going.”
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