But a half-time team talk inspired County before Ross Stewart's second-half double turned the game on its head and they continued where they left off against Killie to record back-to-back wins.

Kettlewell told County's club media: "It's massive, it's so difficult to do in this league.

"We have shown we can be a force at home and we have to try and continue that.

"We have to have a belief in ourselves. The question we had for them at half-time against Hibs was are we believing in ourselves enough?

"I think we flicked a switch there and fortunately enough we took that on with a really strong performance."

Kilmarnock have experienced a reversal in fortunes, losing twice in a row and going four games without a win.

Manager Angelo Alessio admits the only thing they can do is to try to work their way out of their slump.

"It's important to learn from this game," Alessio said. "At this moment everything is bad and we are not going in the right way in terms of results.

"But we have to work because I don't know another way. We have another tough and massive game against Motherwell next week.

"We have to work and prepare well for the game and then I want to see a performance. This one was not enough to get a point and we have to improve."