Johnston looking forward

Kilmarnock boss Allan Johnston insists he feels no extra shame about his side's William Hill Scottish Cup exit to Rangers after watching lowly Alloa stun the Ibrox men three days later.

The Rugby Park outfit went down meekly in Govan on Sunday as they suffered a 3-0 defeat.

Rangers were hardly sensational on the day but still had enough about them to end the Ayrshiremen's cup hopes.

But Barry Smith's part-time Wasps showed them how to do it on Wednesday night as a side missing nine regulars came back from two goals down to sting Ally McCoist's shocked troops.

Their 3-2 win was the Championship strugglers' first ever victory over the Glasgow giants and secured them a place in April's Petrofac Training Cup final against Livingston.

But Johnston rejected the suggestion that Alloa's win heaped fresh disgrace on Killie's top-flight players.

Every game is different. If you look at Rangers then you will see the amount of games they have won this year.

Ibrox is a difficult place to go but we now just need to focus on the next game.

There are not many teams who have beaten Rangers this season. We are disappointed in our own performance. We know we could have done a lot better.''

Killie have now lost five games on the bounce but Johnston claims the fixture list has not been kind to him following trips to Celtic Park, Tannadice and Ibrox.

His side now take on Partick at Firhill on Saturday before hosting St Johnstone and Hamilton, with a trip to Aberdeen in between.

And he reckons there is scope for improvement.

There are always concerns when you start losing games like we are. It's been a difficult period,'' said the Killie boss.

We've had Rangers away, Celtic away, Dundee United away - a lot of tough games.

We should definitely have done a lot better than we have done.

But if you look at the next month, it's a fantastic opportunity for us to get back on track.

We are still in a fantastic position in the league in joint-sixth place.

Obviously we would love to be higher up the table but there is a lot to build on.

Partick got a big result last weekend against Hamilton but this is a big game coming up for us. If we win that it would open up a bit of a gap between us and Thistle.''