Dundee United assistant manager Lee Sharp was full of praise for the squad after their win over Kilmarnock and how manager Jim Goodwin was still able to make his mark on the game.

Goodwin was unable to attend their game at Rugby Park due to being in hospital after receiving tests but that didn’t mean he was completely absent from the game.

Sharp said: “I think he messaged a couple of times just to say to us a few things.”

Speaking on the performance Sharp said: “Delighted, I think the boys were excellent from start to finish. Everything we done all week leading to obviously when the manager wasn’t there and then continued after he wasn’t in and all the messages he relayed to me were all positive.”

“It was good to give him a performance where he could relax and not really worry about it if I’m honest.”

He gave an update on Goodwin’s condition saying: “He’s fine, they just kept him in for observation and I think he’s a bit perplexed by it as well.”

“The players all knew what their jobs were and what the message was etcetera so it was just about them going out and implementing that and they did and they were excellent.”

Dundee United had been struggling to score before this game, not scoring in their last three games before this one.

Sharp spoke about his delight at being able to score four in this game: “I think the performances in periods of those performances there were spells where we actually played well and the chances we created just not managing to take any.”

“We prepared this week like we have last week and the week before and it’s came together today to score four goals and we could have had another one or two.”

Will Ferry turned a lot of heads with his performance during this game including a fantastic strike for Dundee United’s third goal.

Sharp said on Ferry: “Will is great, he comes in and trains like everyone else his professionalism is there so that will continue he’ll continue to do that until otherwise.”

“He just applies himself properly and that’s just a testament to him as well”

Dundee United had struggled to get the first goal in games, not scoring first since the opening day of the season against Rangers.

Sharp said: “It’s important that we didn’t concede and we were organised enough that we could stop them from playing and getting into certain dangerous areas. When you score that first goal it gives you that wee bit of confidence and helps you settle down a little bit. Then when the goals come before half time it’s great.”

Looking forward to the games ahead Sharp said: “We’ll just keep doing what we’re doing. We’ve got a massive game on Wednesday night which will be very tough and then obviously next Saturday as well so we’ll just prepare as we have done.”

This was Dundee United’s first clean sheet in the league this season and Sharp was again full of praise for the players.

He said: “Very satisfied, you would have took 1-0 before the start of the game but 4-0 is incredible and we could have scored another couple of goals. It’s great because we’ve conceded over the last three games anyway so to keep a clean sheet shows how hard the defenders have been working.”

Dundee United face another away trip this time at Fir Park against Motherwell on Wednesday 2nd September as they look to build on this result.