Aug 29th 2008...

The Rugby Park outfit have relied on the talents of the likes of Kris Boyd, Steven Naismith and Colin Nish in recent years and have inevitably lost them to other clubs.

"I don't think it's a problem," he said.

"It's true that we don't have a prolific goalscorer in the team like Colin Nish was, but we have three, four, five different players who can score at any time.

"With the way we are playing at the moment, I think we will be all right. We are keeping clean sheets and we know we can score at any time with Mehdi Taouil, Craig Bryson or even myself!

"I don't think anyone will be more prolific than the others but hopefully we will have a good run."

Kilmarnock boast an unbeaten run against Hibernian, St Mirren and Hamilton in the SPL so far, as well as Brechin in the Co-operative Insurance Cup.

Next up is a trip to Tayside to face Dundee United in what will be their toughest test yet.

"Every single game has been hard and playing at Tannadice is going to be a tough game," said Fernandez.

"But we are in good form and hopefully we can get another victory.

"Winning is good for your confidence, a real lift. It's too soon to say how things will go.

"This is only the fourth game of the season and there is still a long way to go. We need to just keep playing well and keep our confidence up."

Killie slumped to a second-bottom finish in the SPL last season but Fernandez believes they now have a squad capable of repeating the feats of previous campaigns by challenging for a top-six place again.

"We are a very strong team now," he said.

"We have looked very solid and we're a difficult team to beat.

"In fact, in the last four games we have kept a clean sheet, which is good for the defence, for Alan Combe, and for the confidence of the team.

"It's hard to tell what will happen so we just have to take it step by step and see where we are at Christmas time.

"After that, we can start looking at targets for the season but, with the squad we have, I think we can reach the top six.

"But a lot of teams will be looking at that too and it will be tough."

Kilmarnock were written off as relegation fodder by some critics over the summer but Fernandez refused to read too much into those negative predictions.

"We are pretty confident and have belief in ourselves," he said.

"Last season, it was just a matter of a lot injuries that we couldn't handle.

"It's quite difficult when you only have a small squad and there are a lot of players missing throughout the season.

"We have a bigger, stronger squad now. We have started the season well and, if we keep performing in this way, we should be fine."