Houston happy with return to form

Scott Severin headed home his first goal for United to open the scoring before a David Goodwillie double and a stunning strike from Craig Conway gave the hosts an unassailable lead. David Silva and Manuel Pascali pulled two goals back for a below-par Killie, but United who held on to record their eighth home win from their last 10 matches in the Clydesdale Bank Premier League.

The Dundee United boss said: "Although we were disappointed to lose 4-0 (against Rangers) there were circumstances that didn't help us. They bounced back in the proper way and I thought we worked ever so hard and merited our victory."

Houston felt the only negative from the match was the sloppiness which led to Kilmarnock's two late goals.

He added: "For the first 65 minutes I thought it was our best performance of the season as we played brilliantly. When Jon Daly isn't in the team we don't tend to score a lot of headers so it was pleasing to see the first three goals come from headers.

"You are always going to get sloppy in the last 20 minutes and no matter how many times you shout at them to keep their shape the players begin to think they are better players than they are and start trying all the stuff that didn't get them a 4-0 lead.

"However, I can't praise them enough for their performance. The last two goals were disappointing but I won't make an issue of that as I will take us going 4-0 up like that every week."

Kilmarnock caretaker boss Kenny Shiels was hugely disappointed after seeing his side concede four goals for the second match in a row following their heavy midweek defeat to Celtic.

Shiels said: "Dundee United and Celtic are the form teams of 2011. They have Conway, Swanson and Goodwillie firing on all cylinders, while our squad is quite depleted at the moment.

"The two goals we conceded in the first half were poor in terms of people not doing their jobs at set-pieces."

Source: PA

Source: PA