Jig glad to pitch in ideas for Killie

KILMARNOCK interim manager Lee McCulloch has continued making his mark on the club by introducing several new dressing-room features - including a mini pitch on the floor.

McCulloch has moved the players into the away dressing room during the week to keep their matchday experience fresh and brought in exercise bikes to help them warm up.

And there is a further practical element to the newly-decorated room with a pitch marked out as a tactical aid during half-time team talks.

“It’s just something that I picked up when I was going abroad doing my club visits for my Pro Licence a couple of years ago,” McCulloch said.

“It’s another way of explaining your tactics and style of play and positional play to the players. You can talk them through it and that’s just a way of walking them through it.

“It’s only tape, so it’s cheap, it’s not as if we are breaking the budget.

“And it’s something a bit different. We do it on the pitch, we do it on the video, we do it on the tactics board and we also walk through it in the dressing room.

“The boys are openminded, they are adaptable to change, which I am as well. The players are enjoying it.”

Killie are away from home comforts on Saturday when they take on Ladbrokes Premiership champions Celtic, who followed up their title win by dropping points for only the third time this season, against Partick Thistle on Wednesday.

Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers rested the likes of Scott Brown, Kieran Tierney and James Forrest against Thistle but McCulloch feels his opposite number’s team selection will not make their task any less difficult.

“I don’t think it really matters, the squad is that good,” he said.

“No matter who plays it’s going to be a really difficult game, it’s going to be a great test for our young team.

“We have got a lot of so-called inexperienced players playing so I think it’s the time to let them go and get that experience and find out if they are good enough. But I am pretty confident that they are.”