Angelo Alessio feels his Kilmarnock side still have to improve despite moving into third place in the Ladbrokes Premiership after a 1-0 win over St. Mirren.

The Ayrshire outfit were second best for long parts of the largely dull game at Rugby Park before captain Gary Dicker struck 10 minutes from time.​

Alessio's side have now notched six clean sheets in their last eight league games as they move ahead of both Motherwell and Aberdeen.

However, the Italian still wants to see improvement in his side as they prepare for a hectic end of the year.​

"We suffered but we stayed in the game," he said. "St. Mirren played very well. Very fast and very technical in attack. In a season there are always going to be these types of games and we found the goal at the end through Dicker.​

"We are happy with the result but at the same time I think we have to improve. The result is good but well done to St. Mirren because they played a good game.​

"I think it's important to have the points on the board. I don't look at the table now but it's important to improve because we are building our season. It's okay to be third in the table but for me it's very important that we work to improve.​

"Every game is very difficult. Our focus now is the next game, a very tough one against Motherwell on Wednesday. We'll recover tomorrow and then start back training on Monday and select the right line-up for Wednesday."​

St. Mirren boss Jim Goodwin refused to criticise his players following the defeat. The Buddies have now lost five straight league games on the road this season and the Irishman admits they can't continue to write a hard luck story.​

"I think a draw would've been fair," he said. "I always felt that one goal was going to decide it and obviously you hope that it's going to go your way.​

"I would've taken a 0-0 back down the road for our first point on the road this season but I'm gutted for the players because they put a hell of a lot into it. I just said to them down there that we can't keep talking about hard luck stories.​

"There was nothing between the teams and it was a simple set-play that we should have defended better. Unfortunately it goes against us.​

"We had the best chance of the game when Tony (Andreu) was through on goal. On another day he would probably have slotted that home."