Ladbrokes Premiership

KILMARNOCK 1

DUNDEE 1

HOME comforts are sadly lacking for Killie, who extended their winless run in the league at Rugby Park to five games following this deadlock against fellow strugglers Dundee.

But manager Lee McCulloch firmly believes they can still turn things around, despite remaining in bottom spot.

He said afterwards: "If I was brutally honest I would say that was two points dropped for us. Over the course of the game we were the better team. Again, an individual mistake at the start of the match cost us but that will happen if we try to play a certain way.

"The biggest thing is how we react and we showed great character to react to the mistake. In the second half we were the better team."

McCulloch remains optimistic and added: "Slowly we're making progress. We've only lost once in our last four games."

An error from veteran Gordon Greer helped give Dundee the lead in just four minutes. The defender tripped over the ball as he tried to boot it clear in the penalty area. Fassail El Bakhtaoui then set up Ronnie Deacon on the right and Scott Alan set up AJ Leitch-Smith, whose 12-yard shot was pushed away by Jamie MacDonald. However the unmarked Bahktaoui picked up the loose ball and thundered a shot into the net.

Killie then took a grip of the game and their best opening of the first half came when Lee Erwin, who had been set up by Dean Hawkshaw, but he disappointingly shot straight at Scott Bain.

Home player Calum Waters escaped with a booking following a late challenge on Jack Hendry.

However in 64 minutes Killie levelled when veteran striker Kris Boyd headed a knockdown from Jordan Jones - called into the Northern Ireland World Cup squad this week - and Greer made up for his earlier gaffe by drilling the ball home from 12 yards.

Next up for Killie is a home clash on Saturday with a Ross County side, who sacked manager and former Rugby Park favourite Jim McIntyre on Monday.

KILMARNOCK: MacDonald; O'Donnell, Greer, Findlay, Taylor, Hawkshaw, Watters, McKenzie, Frizzell (Boyd 63); Jones, Erwin. Subs not used: Bell, Power, Thomas, Broadfoot, Burke, Samizadeh.

STARMAN: Jordan Jones 3

Dean Hawkshaw 2

Lee Erwin 1.