Lafferty’s Killie debut delayed as striker battles for fitness – Wright

Kilmarnock manager Tommy Wright admits he left Kyle Lafferty out of Saturday’s defeat to Rangers for his own sake.

The experienced former Rangers and Hearts marksman did not feature in the squad for the narrow 1-0 loss at Ibrox after only joining the Rugby Park outfit 24 hours earlier.

Lafferty has not played since featuring for 67 minutes for Reggina on December 19 before leaving the Italian second tier side last month.

Despite Killie struggling for goals, former St Johnstone boss Wright, who oversaw his second game in charge at the weekend, admits Lafferty’s lack of fitness was a major factor in deciding to leave him out against Rangers.

Wright, whose side travel to Aberdeen this weekend, said: “It came a little bit too early for Kyle, it was the end of December

that he last did something.

“He did a training session on Friday and I just felt for his sake that we gave him a full week’s training.”

Wright is looking forward to seeing what Lafferty can offer, with Killie now having failed to find the net in six of their last seven matches.

Wright added: “There was a lack of belief in the final third, box to box we were OK. I think we’re missing that cutting edge

“There’s a lot of effort from the players and a lot of commitment.

“We didn’t do enough in the final third, I thought we were loose with our final ball.

“It’s another defeat and it’s not the start that I wanted and it’s not what the players wanted either.”

Wright, meanwhile, insists defeats to Motherwell and Rangers have not dampened his enthusiasm for being back in the dugout after standing down as Saints manager last May.

Speaking to Killie TV, he added: “Even with the defeats I’ve enjoyed it, the club have made me really welcome, all the staff and everybody at the club.

“I think we’ve had a good response from the players in terms of performance at times.

“But it has to get better for us to pick up results.”

Striker Kyle Lafferty.