Stuart McCall was proud of his battling Motherwell side who battled through the heat to earn a well-deserved draw at Rugby Park.
Both teams shared periods of possession and although Kilmarnock created more chances, ‘Well could arguably claim the better of the opportunities with Nicky Law, Steve Jennings and Bob McHugh all going close.
McCall was delighted with his men and felt a share of the spoils was just about the correct score.
He said: “I thought they started better and on the front foot but once we got the ball down we started to make some good opportunities, but we just didn’t have that final pass or that finish.
“Cammy Bell did pull off a couple of great saves, one from Bob McHugh and the other from Jennings. We were sitting right behind that one and we thought it was going in and he just got a finger on it. Nicky Law had also been clean through but the boy came from nowhere and got a great tackle in.
“We had opportunities; we perhaps could have done better in the first half. I thought we got into good areas of the park without the finish. Second half it was more even, but the last fifteen minutes the players suffered in the heat.
Motherwell had an unusually high amount of corners, fourteen in total, but failed to convert them into goals.
McCall explained the difficulty ‘Well faced in trying to break the home defence and reckons that although both teams are renowned for trying to play good football, there are differences in how the sides set-up.
“We didn’t really want to put the ball into the box as they had the height advantage. Maybe if we had big Higdon there it might have made a difference,” McCall explained.
“We had no tall full backs and no big target man, we only had two big guys, Steven Craigan and Shaun Hutchinson, and we felt defensively we could be under the cosh. But if you look at the game as a whole, Darren only had a couple of saves from long range which were comfortable enough, while Bell had a couple of fantastic saves when we hit them on the break.
“We like to hit teams on the break with a bit of pace and I think Kilmarnock play a lot of passes and it would have been hard on either team if they had lost.
“The heat was a big telling factor and you need to work hard against Kilmarnock as they keep the ball so well. All in all, I am pleased with the result.”