Paatelainen feels his players passed the ball well at Ibrox

Kilmarnock manager Mixu Paatelainen was heartened by the performance of his side in their 2-1 defeat to Rangers on the opening day of the season.

The Ayrshire side ran their Ibrox counterparts close for much of the game in Paatelainen's first game in charge.

"There are plenty of positives. But, at the end of the day, we didn't add to our points tally," said Paatelainen.

"If we keep improving like what we have done in the past six or seven weeks then we will see progress."

Killie struggled to score away from home last season and Paatelainen was pleased to register an early away goal in the season through Jamie Hamill's penalty.

"It is always tough, places like this," he told BBC Scotland. "We passed the ball well and caused them problems.

"In the final third, we are still a little bit blunt. We scored an away goal, which was a very rare thing to happen last season.

"In the first half, I felt we created about five goalscoring opportunities.

"Danny Invincibile, who played up front, was absolutely fantastic. The wide players did a good job. We got the midfielders in the box and it just didn't fall for us.

I thought some moves today were absolutely fantastic and a joy to watch Mixu Paatelainen

"But, hopefully, during the season, we'll score enough goals that will see us stay in the division comfortably."

Paatelainen handed debuts to recent seasons David Mendes Da Silva, Ben Gordon and James Dayton.

"It's not easy to come to Scotland and especially when the first game is Ibrox," added the Fin.

"The tempo of the game is so much faster than on the Continent.

"Obviously we've got some players from England as well, so it's a little bit easier for them, but I feel that the players are settling in well.

"They're trying to do what we asked them to do and I thought some moves today were absolutely fantastic and a joy to watch.

"I don't want to be overly optimistic, but I was pretty pleased with the way we passed the ball, but there's loads to improve."

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