Kilmarnock manager Stuart Kettlewell was delighted with the debut performance of goalkeeper Max Stryjek in his side’s 1-0 Premier Sports Cup win over Livingston.
The Pole denied his former club on a number of occasions as Killie took control of Group H.
Stryjek has returned to Scottish football three years after leaving Livi for Wycombe and after a season of largely playing understudy at Jagiellonia Bialystok in his homeland.
Speaking after his first home match in charge, Kettlewell said of his keeper: “You just see his experience, don’t you? He’s some character, but he just wants to play football. He wants to get back out on the pitch.
“He’s been a guy for a number of years now that’s been active in the game, playing, being involved, under pressure, doing well.
“So I think you can kind of see that in his performance. He’s been really vibrant about the place and delighted that he performed as well as he did.”
Killie triumphed thanks to a 31st-minute own goal from Mo Sylla, who was unfortunate to see the ball bounce in off him after some poor handling from goalkeeper Jerome Prior.
“I need to rein myself in for being negative, because I absolutely think we can play much better than what we did,” Kettlewell added. “I think we’ll have to over the course of the season.
“What the players showed us was a bit of grit, a bit of determination, to make sure they dragged themselves across the line to get the three points.”
Livingston manager David Martindale was encouraged by some of his team’s attacking play and is set to add to his squad in the coming days.
Martindale will attend a work permit hearing on Thursday in a bid to sign 36-year-old DR Congo international striker Jeremy Bokila from Willem II, who were relegated from the Dutch top flight last season.
“I’m pretty confident it will get passed, he is coming from a real top level,” he said.
“And then there’s two younger ones who I’m speaking to their parent clubs about. Whether that’s going to be loans or permanent deals…
“If I can get those three players in the building this week or early next week, I’ll be over the moon with what we’ve got, although we would need to trim the squad a bit.”
