Kilmarnock 3-0 Dundee United: Tommy Wright says job of avoiding drop not done yet

The job of avoiding relegation from the Scottish Premiership is "nowhere near done" says Kilmarnock boss Tommy Wright, despite his side's 3-0 thrashing of Dundee United.

Kyle Lafferty netted a hattrick in 11 first-half minutes to secure victory.

The win moves Kilmarnock five points clear of bottom side Hamilton Academical and up to 10th, a point clear of the relegation play-off.

"We've been down there for far too long," Wright said.

• Reaction & as it happened

"But I'm not thinking the job's done - it's nowhere near done.

"We still need a couple of wins to make sure we can stay in this league. It now gives us a little bit of a cushion but there's a lot of hard work to go, but in terms of it being a good night for us - most definitely."

United - who were already safe and made seven changes - slip to eighth.

Lafferty was a February free-agent signing as Tommy Wright took charge with Kilmarnock in serious relegation trouble, and though the jeopardy is far from over, the Northern Irishman is taking it upon himself to launch the Ayrshire side to safety, with 10 goals in his last six games.

His opener came in typical fashion, as he peeled off United's 16-year-old centre-back Kerr Smith to nod in Ross Millen's fantastic cross from close range, and his second arrived just three minutes later.

Millen was again inch-perfect with the assist, as he latched on to Chris Burke's incisive pass to pull the ball back for Lafferty to dispatch into the far corner.

After a strong start, United were now reeling and Jeando Fuchs compounded their misery by coming through the back of Chris Burke in the box three minutes before the break to hand Lafferty a chance for a 10-minute hat-trick.

The former Rangers man sent Deniz Mehmet the wrong way with a calm finish into the right-hand corner and essentially wrapped up victory by half-time.

United very much looked like a side who had made seven changes and had little to play for, with young defender Smith given a torrid time on his first start.

However, they can shake this one off with minimal damage done and look forward to Saturday's Scottish Cup quarter-final with Aberdeen.

Man of the match - Kyle Lafferty

An honourable mention for Millen, who assisted the first two goals, but there is only one serious candidate in Lafferty given his contribution

What did we learn?

He might have only played eight games, but there is perhaps a debate to be had about whether Lafferty could be a contender for player of the season. There are few others who could claim to have had the same transformational impact on their team.

Kilmarnock toiled on the goalscoring front before his arrival. They now have 18 in their last six matches, 10 of which have come from him. While Lafferty has had plenty of problems throughout his career, he does have a habit of stepping up when the stakes are high. Just ask Northern Ireland fans.

Wright also deserves huge credit for his work in turning the team's attacking fortunes around.

For United, it was a night to write off. Their approach of throwing young players in is commendable, and though 16-year-old Smith was taught a lesson by Lafferty, he will have learned far more in that 90 minutes than any amount of game time with the under-20s.

What they said

Kilmarnock manager Tommy Wright: "The main thing for us is getting the three points. We knew the Hamilton result before kick-off so it was a big three points for us.

"Then we heard St Mirren had won up at Ross County so it opens up a bit of a gap and gets us up to 10th place."

Dundee United manager Micky Mellon: "We wanted to keep the integrity of the league. We had a go and expected to get some sort of a result.

"They [young players] did very well and we'll be able to move on from the so-called report card now and work on the things they need to get better at."

What's next?

Both sides are in Scottish Cup quarter-final action this weekend. Dundee United travel to Pittodrie to take on Aberdeen on Sunday (14:30 BST), while Kilmarnock host St Mirren the next day (19:45). Both games are live on the BBC.