Captain Alan Power is looking for Kilmarnock to build on their “much-needed” cinch Premiership win in midweek when Hearts visit on Sunday.

After three successive defeats on the road and one win in eight to leave the newly-promoted Ayrshire club at the bottom of the table with two points, the pressure was on against St Johnstone at Rugby Park on Wednesday night.

However, a deserved 2-1 win thanks to a Danny Armstrong double rejuvenated Derek McInnes’ side ahead of the game against the Jambos, who were beaten 1-0 by Killie when they met in their Premier Sports Cup tie at Tynecastle at the end of August.

The 34-year-old midfielder said: “It was much-needed for all of us, to get that win under our belt and roll on to Sunday’s game high on confidence.

“It felt like the win was a long time coming for us. We knew the game against St Johnstone was a big game for us and we needed to get points on the board and that’s what we did.

“The energy and effort in the team was brilliant and we fully deserved the victory.

“It is a confident bunch of lads. We had been playing relatively well apart from the Aberdeen game (4-1 defeat) last week. We were happy with the way we were performing and confident of the way we were going ahead.

“The Aberdeen game probably knocked us a little bit, we played well in stages just not enough for what we wanted to do but the character the lads showed in the St Johnstone game was brilliant.

“Obviously it will be tough on Sunday, we know what Hearts are about but we know what we can do to them as well, which we have shown already this season.

“So we will go into the game confident, at home, with our supporters behind us and looking for the win.”

The Irishman hopes Hearts are still feeling the effects of the 3-0 Europa Conference League defeat by Serie A side Fiorentina at Tynecastle on Thursday night but knows Killie will have to perform at their best.

“The more tired legs the better,” he said.

“But we will concentrate on ourselves and what we have to do to get something out of the game.

“We have to make sure we pick up as many points as we can at home. We said that at the start of the season.

“Hearts always look a good, strong team. They play football really well, really attractively so we need to counteract that.”