Three things we learned about Kilmarnock in the win over Brora Rangers

The 2-0 win wasn't scintillating but it did offer some clues about the season ahead.

Stuart Kettlewell’s first competitive game as Kilmarnock manager brought a win, albeit not a particularly scintillating one.

A 2-0 victory over Brora Rangers in the Highlands got the job done, with some good things and some bad on display.

As Ewan Paton said in his report, these games are de facto pre-season friendlies as teams look to build fitness for the Premiership campaign to come.

That doesn’t mean though that there aren’t things they can tell us.

Habitually on the Killie Chronicle we’d have a more detailed tactical breakdown, but with the full match not available on Wyscout we’ve gone for a more general overview.

Rest assured, full analysis pieces will be back for the start of the season proper.

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Read More:

• Brora Rangers 0 Kilmarnock 2: Four talking points from Stuart Kettlewell's first game

• I spent nearly four years at Kilmarnock – now I organise their pre-season trips

• What Stuart Kettlewell's first post-match press conference told us about his plans

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3-4-2-1 here to stay?

As we highlighted when Kettlewell was appointed, at Motherwell he preferred to play with a 3-4-2-1 shape, with two attacking midfielders behind a central striker.

That’s the shape he went for against Ayr in Rory McKenzie’s testimonial, and it was the same against Brora on Saturday.

Given this was the first competitive game under Kettlewell, no-one would expect things to be operating as a well-oiled machine from the get-go.