Dundee United striker Lawrence Shankland hopes he and Marc McNulty have rediscovered their goalscoring touch at the perfect time.

Shankland netted his first goal in just short of three months while McNulty broke his duck for United in Wednesday’s 2-0 victory over Kilmarnock.

United have been reliant on Nicky Clark for goals among the strikers with the former Rangers man on nine and Micky Mellon was delighted to see his Scotland forwards get on the score sheet at the start of a busy period of games.

“It’s great,” Shankland told DUTV. “Of course as a striker you want to be on the score sheet as much as you can and it’s been a bit of a long time coming getting the third goal of the season.

“But I got it eventually and I’m delighted and delighted for Sparky getting his first goal as well.

“When you find yourself in a wee bit of a drought as a striker it’s always quite tough to accept but you just need to keep working hard and put yourself in positions.”

Shankland scored 91 goals in his previous three seasons so the former Ayr striker was frustrated by his drought after netting two in his four matches of the campaign following his return from an ankle injury.

“It’s the first one I experienced in probably three years so a bit frustrating but I was delighted to see the ball hit the net and most importantly we got a good three points and a big win,” the 25-year-old said ahead of the Boxing Day visit of Motherwell.

“He (McNulty) is off the mark now and it feels like I am off the mark again as well. That’s the three strikers scoring now so fingers crossed we can have three strikers in form going into the next few games.

“You want to play as many games as you can and to get a wee run of games in midweek is great. If you can take positive results from them you can end up in a good place. It’s an important period over Christmas and New Year.

“It’s a good start and we have another tough game on Saturday.”