High drama under the lights, a penalty shoot-out with a Panenka thrown in for good measure and ten men digging deep to pull a win out of the fire for their under-pressure manager made for a thoroughly entertaining Saturday night at Rugby Park.Entertainment is one thing, though. The question of whether either of these sides is actually any good is quite another. And on the basis of this Premier Sports Cup quarter-final, you have to fear there is still trouble ahead for both of them when it comes to the bread-and-butter of the league.Had Aberdeen failed to get the job done, the pitch invasion from the away end that followed the shoot-out — a brainless affair sure to result in investigation and punishment from the authorities — might well have involved the tarring and feathering of boss Stephen Robinson.He badly needed his men to come clutch here. Grim league form that has brought just four points from five games — three of which, against Hearts on the opening weekend, were completely undeserved — has pushed the Dons’ long-suffering fanbase to the brink and it looked for periods of this affair that they might end up being tipped over the edge.Robinson was fulsome in his praise of his players at time-up and that’s understandable. One thing that has to be said is that you cannot fault their appetite. They gritted their teeth brilliantly here and set up a Hampden semi-final clash with Rangers against all odds.After Kevin Nisbet’s 52nd-minute opener against the run of play, they had to overcome the sending-off of centre-back Dan Happe, who had no reason to foul the onrushing Joe Hugill and earn a second yellow, and the equaliser from home substitute Tyreece John-Jules that came from the resultant free-kick. Dons goalkeeper Marius Muller came up with three big saves in the penalty shoot-outAnd let’s give them plenty of credit here. They did. In some style. Despite everything, they pushed hard towards the end of the second half, forced Killie keeper Max Stryjek into a handful of saves in the closing stages of extra-time and showed the bottle to bounce back from seeing Nesta Guinness-Walker miss their first penalty of the shoot-out — even though Robinson had taken the unexpected step of replacing Nisbet with Ayoub Mouloua, he of the aforesaid Panenka, 10 minutes before it.That his team are willing to fight for him looks assured. It was hard to share Robinson’s post-match view, though, that the general standard of their play was up to scratch. Or anywhere near it.At half-time, they had only managed one effort on target. Even at the end of the regulation 90, their shots at goal stats were a fraction of those belonging to Killie.Now, they did bombard Stryjek’s goal at the end of extra-time, but they simply aren’t creating enough in the way of chances. No one other than Nisbet, 10 for the season and nine in this competition, is scoring goals. The only other bloke with a goal to his name in the league, after all, is defender Lewis Mayo.There’s no question Robinson needs to work on getting the blend right in the attacking positions. Mitchy Ntelo offered little at the weekend up beside Nisbet before being taken off for Toyosi Olusanya at the break.In fairness, Olusanya did bring a little more danger to the mix, but it was young Findlay Marshall who really injected some ball-carrying and intent into his team when replacing the disappointing Stuart Armstrong at the start of extra-time. Maybe he deserves a whirl over the coming games.Certainly, Robinson needs considerably more than this. Guts and determination are great foundations to build upon, but they do not make a successful side. It’s Aberdeen we are talking about here. They need to be top-four minimum in the table and, right now, look nothing like that.Chance-creation is an issue. Quality is an issue. Happe, who looked well off it even before seeing red at Rugby Park, has the potential to be an issue. This, over the piece, simply wasn’t good enough. Again. This was a vital result for boss Stephen Robinson, who celebrated with Jack Milne at full-timeIt was the first time the Dons had won away from home against Premiership opposition since last December. Even so, it wasn’t enough to inspire confidence ahead of difficult journeys to Motherwell and Hibs in the days ahead. It would be no surprise to see Robinson back under the cosh after those.Head coach Neil McCann is already there at Killie. The boos at time-up in this one were deafening and it came as little surprise.McCann’s words afterwards were harsh and unsparing. There was no spark in his players when this game was there for the winning. They seemed to go into their shells, lose their way. Maybe even lose their heads.Look, you wouldn’t call the football free-flowing from either of these teams. Not by a long chalk. However, Killie were the better side in the first half with Erik Ring and Tom Lowery both forcing decent saves from visiting keeper Marius Muller.When John-Jules levelled after Happe’s sending-off, it was all there for them. Yet, they failed completely to capitalise on the numerical advantage. It looked like they didn’t just run out of ideas, but lost their bottle. It was scandalous and really doesn’t engender any confidence in them for the battles that lie ahead in their attempts to get off the bottom of the table.The shoot-out was the final insult, really. Muller emerged the hero of the hour with three saves, but, my God, Killie made his life easy. His diving stop from Mark O’Hara’s shot from the 12-yard mark was good, but the efforts from John-Jules and Aaron Tshibola when the heat was on were utterly pathetic.What unfolded here was undoubtedly exciting, but you’d never call it inspiring. It was a somewhat chaotic affair between two below-par sides. Two sides you wouldn’t say are showing enough quite yet to convince you that anything other than more strife lies ahead. Sorry.