Kilmarnock 0 - 3 Dunfermline: Mark Kerr confident Pars can win their ‘scrap’ for survival

Andrew Barrowman opened the scoring with five minutes to play in the first half, and Joe Cardle doubled the visitors’ lead on the hour.

With three minutes remaining, Liam Buchanan added a third to ensure Dunfermline’s first league win at Rugby Park since 1993.

Kerr joined the club on a free transfer on Thursday and went straight into action.

He said: “It was a good start for me. The lads have been saying that a few breaks have gone against us recently, and everyone put in that bit extra to get the win. At times we passed the ball well on a horrible pitch; I think if you look at patches of our game we moved the ball about nicely.

“We now need to go to Motherwell on Tuesday night and fight again. We are playing without any pressure despite being bottom of the league and it’s a great challenge for all of the lads.

“Our fighting can help us out of the scrap – we’re not going to stroll out of it but if we keep up the levels we showed today I believe we can stay up.”

Kerr opted for Dunfermline despite having a trial with a Kilmarnock side battling for a place in the upper reaches of the SPL table and who have a Co-Operative Cup semi-final against local rivals Ayr next weekend.

The former Aberdeen midfielder admits, though, that his decision was made easy by the commitment shown by Dunfermline to win his signature.

Kerr explained: “It was a funny one. It’s difficult for clubs just now as they don’t have much of a budget. There were reports that I had chosen Dunfermline as I was going to be earning more money, but that’s certainly not the case. I trained for one day with Dunfermline and they offered me a deal there and then – that made it a little easier for me as they showed they really wanted me.”

He added: “Jimmy Nicholl knew me from my time at Aberdeen, and Kenny [Shiels] asked me to come and train with Kilmarnock. But Killie could not show me the commitment Dunfermline did.”

Shiels praised the attitude shown by opponents, who bounced back from a 3-1 Scottish Cup defeat by Inverness.

He said: “It’s about Dunfermline, they worked hard and are fighting for their lives. They showed great spirit for their manager. We are not going to start complaining about conditions, overhead and under foot, that takes away from their victory.”

He denied that next weekend’s Co-Operative Insurance Cup semi-final against Ayr had an effect on the mindset of his players.

Kilmarnock travel to Hampden next Saturday aiming to secure a cup final place for the first time since 2007.

Shiels said: “I’ve heard people say that going into the game. The players are professionals, no way would I say that is any reason for this result.”