Tony Docherty hopes Kilmarnock put on show for home fans in Partick Thistle tie

Tony Docherty wants Kilmarnock to put on a show for the home fans when they face Partick Thistle in Wednesday night’s Premier Sports Cup tie at Rugby Park.

Killie began their campaign with a 3-1 win at Fraserburgh on Saturday where Oli Shaw, Fraser Murray and Kyle Lafferty scored for the Premiership visitors and Sean Butcher was on target for the home side.

Next up are Thistle who beat Stenhousemuir 2-1 at the weekend and – looking ahead to the first home game since Blair Alston’s late winner against Arbroath in April clinched the cinch Championship title and promotion to the top flight – assistant boss Docherty told Kilmarnock’s YouTube channel: “It will be brilliant to get back.

“The last home game was the Blair Alston game, as they all call it.

“But it will be great to be back in front of the home fans again.

“Hopefully we will have good numbers there and we will be looking forward to putting on a show for them against a difficult opponent.

“We have seen a couple of their pre-season games and they made a few signings so that will be a difficult game but we need to make sure we are up for that and we are ready to go.”

Docherty was happy to see his attacking players get off the mark early in the season but is looking for more.

He said: “That was important. Oli Shaw had a chance in the first minute and you are hoping, ‘come on Oli’ and he gets his goal, a great header, from a great ball in from Alan Power.

“Fraser Murray’s free-kick was outstanding, it is something we see him do every day and big Kyle was on the end of a Danny Armstrong cross so it is good to see that.

“The only thing I would say is we were maybe a wee bit wasteful in front of goa. We could have had more goals from the opportunities we created.

“You are always striving to be better. We’re glad that they are on the score sheet – we want to see them take more of their opportunities.”