Dundee United boss Micky Mellon expressed his delight as his international front pairing of Marc McNulty and Lawrence Shankland fired the Tangerines to victory over Kilmarnock at Tannadice.

McNulty opened the scoring in the 25th minute with his first goal for the club and his strike partner added a second shortly after.

The quickfire double was enough to secure all three points and move the Tangerines up to fifth in the Premiership table.

“It was a good performance,” said Mellon.

“We knew we would have to play like we did as Kilmarnock under Alex Dyer are a very well-organised side and established at this level.

“So we would have to get things right in order to get a result tonight and we are delighted to do that.

“It was special to see both my strikers scoring. I have to say that they have suffered a wee bit because the types of strikers they are, they play well in pairs.

“But we felt we had to try to find some defensive solidity which meant that the way the team shaped up maybe didn’t allow us to get two players up the pitch.

“But they scored two terrific goals and we could have had a couple more.

“We are delighted with where we are. We are up to fifth but we won’t be getting carried away.”

Killie have now lost their last seven Premiership matches, failing to score in any of them, and Dyer admitted it was a worrying time for the club.

“It was a tough one because I thought we started the game well and created a few chances,” he said.

“The heads didn’t drop and they kept working hard.

“It is worrying though as we want to score goals and win games. We have a tough period coming up but we have to get as many points as we can in the next four games.”