Sunderland loanee helps new club to impressive midweek European win

Sunderland loanee Ollie Bainbridge completed 69 minutes for new club Kilmarnock as the Scottish side came through a tight Europa Conference League clash with Norwegian outfit Tromso on Thursday evening.

Killie ran out 3-2 winners on aggregate, with a Joe Wright strike sealing a 1-0 second leg victory on foreign soil to send Derek McInnes’ men into a play-off qualifier with FC Copenhagen next week.

Bainbridge was handed a second start of the campaign by McInnes in Norway, having played a full 90 minutes in Killie’s 4-0 opening day Scottish Premiership defeat at the hands of Celtic earlier this month, and registered almost 70 minutes of action before being replaced by fellow defender Robbie Deas.

The 19-year-old is yet to make his senior debut for Sunderland, but has been a regular fixture of the Black Cats’ youth sides in recent seasons, and looks set to gain valuable first team experience north of the border over the coming months.

Kilmarnock’s next outing is a Scottish League Cup second round clash with Motherwell on Sunday afternoon, before they make the trip to Denmark to face Copenhagen on Thursday night. Still winless in the league, Bainbridge and his teammates will return to Premiership action with a tricky test against Aberdeen on August 24th.

Despite the slow start to his side’s domestic campaign, McInnes has already singled the Sunderland loanee out for praise. Speaking after the heavy defeat to Celtic, he said: “If you can find positives in a 4-0 defeat is we've got minutes into some of the boys utilising the squad. Young Ollie did terrifically well for his first senior game and he came in after only meeting the players yesterday.”