Joe Bevan opened the scoring for the Dark Blues with Joe Hugill netting a penalty for Killie 15 minutes from time. Ash Hay then thought he had given Dundee the lead once more, but his goal was ruled out for handball.

However, the striker, who had missed a gilt-edged opportunity in the defeat to St Mirren on Saturday, kept going and netted two late goals to secure all three points. Pressley said: “Really pleased with the result. The game itself very much epitomised how tight the league is.

“Kilmarnock gave us problems; they’re a good side. In the early part of the second half they put us under a lot of pressure. The margins between nine of the teams is really fine, so it took an amazing response after the penalty.

“This group only seems to know one way to respond, and that’s in a positive manner.”

Pressley added: “I spoke to the players about the margins and how hard we have to run and work to get results and when you see Ash cramping up at the end it says a lot about him and the group.

“His performance was really strong. He’s so quick and strong aerially. There was the disappointment of the goal being chopped off.

“I spoke to him on Monday. He was disappointed with the miss against St Mirren. I said that’s normal for a striker and there will be another 100 misses like that but you have to show the courage to go back and miss again and he did that.

“He kept putting himself in those areas of vulnerability and he got his just reward.”

Killie boss Neil McCann admitted his players were angry they did not capitalise on their dominant spells in the game. He said: “Very disappointed. I felt for large spells we were the better side.

“They’re very direct and have a lot of power. Ultimately that’s what’s killed us – the ball in the box. Second half we pushed, and their keeper made brilliant saves, so it’s a sore one.

"I think we all felt we were on the ascendancy. Steven [Pressley] felt we were on the ascendancy, but we just didn’t do enough.

"They defended brilliantly and the second goal was a real killer. It’s a disappointing evening. The boys worked ever so hard but they go away with nothing.

“Dundee struggled with us going wide but they seemed to get their heads on things, then when we did create their keeper produced world-class saves.

“They’re angry because they had enough of the game to take a point, if not all three.”