Danny Armstrong admits Rangers red card 'regret' but Kilmarnock star insists fire in belly will never fade

Danny Armstrong won’t douse the fires as he looks to scorch Rangers and light-up Kilmarnock’s start to the Premiership.

The Rugby Park ace is relishing tonight’s Premiership opener against Michael Beale’s men. Armstrong is eager to make up for being red carded when the Ibrox side last visited Ayrshire at the start of this year. The winger knows he can’t let his passion to help Derek McInnes’s side succeed go too far. But Armstrong will keep the feisty edge as he said: “I’ve had conversations with the manager about the fire in my belly, I don’t want to lose that.

"I can be fiery sometimes, yeah. It was silly getting sent off, it’s one thing I certainly didn’t mean. All I can do is learn from it. You need to get the balance right sometimes so you don’t tip over the edge. We need to use the energy that’s going to be inside this stadium as positively as possible rather than negatively. I felt I was having a good game that night, I ended up getting sent off and who knows, if I’d been on the pitch we might have got something from the game. It’s a regret of mine but, hopefully, I made it up to the team afterwards.”

Armstrong did. He was Player of the Year as Killie dodged the drop. McInnes now wants his club to kick-on and landing a blow on one of the Old Firm in front of a live TV audience would represent a terrific start.

Armstrong believes that too and said: “It’s one we can all look forward to, live on Sky in front of a big crowd, I’m looking forward to it. I can’t imagine Rangers being cold to be honest, they’re a great side and they’ve got lots about them.

“They’ve got a new squad but they’ll have been working just as hard as us during pre-season. Rangers will need to be at their best and we will need to be at our best