DEREK MCINNES doesn’t have much to complain about right now.
His Kilmarnock team is improving every week and they’ve beaten both Rangers and Celtic this season.
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Coming off the weekend draw against the Hoops, McInnes only needed to a quick glance at the papers, a short browse on social media or a brief tune in to the radio to hear plaudits about his Killie side.
But he’s revealed why he’s been JEALOUS of old club Aberdeen and Rangers this season.
McInnes managed the Dons from 2013-2021 and played for Gers between 1995 and 2000 before moving to West Bromwich Albion.
He was working as a pundit for the League Cup final between those two sides and admitted he was jealous he wasn’t there in a different capacity – managing his team in the fixture.
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With Killie having drawn Aberdeen in the quarter-finals of the Scottish Cup, McInnes is desperate to make sure that same feeling doesn’t happen again.
Speaking to the Daily Record about the season so far, McInnes said: “If we can finish top six that would be massive for us, considering where we were two years ago.
“My first game was Queen of the South away down at Palmerston. We were a million miles away then from where we are now as a club both on the park and off it.
“So the aim is top six and then the question is, ‘Can we get back to Hampden in a cup final?’ I was working with TV for the Rangers-Aberdeen League Cup Final in December and I have to admit, I was so jealous that I wasn’t standing in the dugout with my team.
“So, yes, I want to take Kilmarnock to a cup final and if we can maintain our standards and mirror a lot of what we have done over the course of the season so far then it’s possible.
“I’m not asking my players to do anything they haven’t done so far this season. So it’s not as if we’re looking for a bigger reach.”
The scalps over the Old Firm shocked many in the Scottish football landscape.
But not the Rugby Park gaffer.
He said: “I’m not sure if ‘surprised’ is the right word. It is more about a validation of the squad.
“We’ve put together a squad that can win those types of games.
“We had beaten everyone else in the league last season apart from Rangers and Celtic. So, against the rest, we had proved, in any given 90 minutes, we had a performance in us to win it. And that was with a squad that I felt we had improved over the summer.
“So we had to show that we had the performances in us to beat Rangers and Celtic and we did that right away at the start of the season.
“We also started to pick up points on the road which was also an improvement.
“The fact that we have only lost one in 13 shows we’ve been competitive away from home even if a lot of those draws should have been wins.
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“But, yes, beating Rangers and Celtic is good for everyone around the club.
“As supporters, players and staff you get scarred sometimes playing against Rangers and Celtic. It’s hard because you need to do so much right in these games.”
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