Foolish to set targets but Killie can hold their own in top flight

I’VE had a full week to reflect on Kilmarnock’s title success, something I never viewed as a foregone conclusion.

Just a few days after I took the job in January a former Championship manager of significant experience phoned me and said he thought Killie were the fourth-best team in the league. In his opinion Arbroath, Inverness and Raith were better.

There were five teams fighting for first place at that stage and one them was going to miss the play-offs. The first objective was to make sure that wasn’t us.

We were five points behind Arbroath in February and I always thought we would have to beat them at home to win the league.

From day one, the players were receptive. While we haven’t been perfect, Tony Docherty, Paul Sheerin and I feel that the spirit in our dressing room is up their with the best we have managed and coached.

Some of them were here last season and wanted to right the wrongs of relegation but we also wanted to build a connection with the supporters.

There had been a bit of angst in the stands and it was important we settled things down and tried to get some stability.

It feels good to have done that but we now have to rebuild for next season and that recruitment job will be as big as any I faced when I was at Aberdeen.

It would be foolish to set targets now but there is nothing to be daunted by.

I don’t think the Premiership has been of the highest standard this season. Only Hearts and the Old Firm have a positive goal difference, which tells you some other clubs have underperformed.

Every promoted team gets a bounce.

And we can tap into the emotion of those young supporters who celebrated so joyfully at Rugby Park last Friday, a generation that had never before seen Kilmarnock lift a trophy.