Derek McInnes warns Kilmarnock players of 'street football chaos' in Ross County relegation shoot out

Derek McInnes has warned his Kilmarnock players to expect the chaos of street football in their Survival Sunday showdown with Ross County.

Killie go into the final Premiership clash of the season at Rugby Park two points better off than the Staggies who sit in the play-off spot. But McInnes says his side can’t sit back and play for the point they need. He’s urged them to be prepared for utter bedlam should Malky Mackay’s side go all out for a win in the latter stages. McInnes, who is confident of having midweek goal hero Kyle Vassell available, said: “From a mindset point of view we want to go in and fight fire with fire.

“We’re facing a team that’s coming down with a shot at it. We have to see it as the same shot. The only time we may have an advantage of that point being enough is maybe later in the game or if we’re winning. But if it gets to that stage it will be a bit like street football - Malky will be throwing everything at it or if they’re winning the game we’ll be throwing everything at it. It could end up chaos.

“It’s important we try to manage that. The message from the start has to be to go and try to win the game."

McInnes says lessons have been learned from last season’s title bout with Arbroath that saw Killie lift the Championship in front of their own fans despite trailing with just 12 minutes to go. He said: “That can be a reference for this game, the players were too het up for it.

“We were caught up in the emotion of it, we forgot to play, we made a difficult task harder by being too excitable. It’s only when we brought some calmness to it in the second half that we got the job done.”

“It would be a psychological boost to see Kyle in the team. We’ve had some of our better performances and he’s chipped