Jim Goodwin insists Dundee United’s dominant victory against Livingston has set the bar for the rest of the season.
The Tannadice outfit climbed back up to sixth in the William Hill Premiership in a one-sided 3-1 win against bottom-of-the-table Livingston.
Zac Sapsford opened the scoring in the first half, but United had to wait until the 86th minute to double their lead courtesy of a Ryan McGowan own goal.
Amar Fatah then added a third before Connor McLennan grabbed a stoppage-time consolation for the hosts.
And as United prepare for the derby against Dundee this weekend, Goodwin insists they must build on this impressive showing.
He said: “I’m delighted with the overall performance.
“The result was the most important thing, but from start to finish we were pretty seamless.
“Going in at half-time with just a one-goal advantage was disappointing given the dominance we had in the opening period.
“They cleared a couple off the line, but we felt we’d keep pushing and get that next goal.
“The third goal was a great break of play.
“It was a massive three points. I’ve never had an easy game here and I’m not saying this was one either.
“The players had to perform at a good level and this was as comfortable a win as I’ve had here.
“If you look back at Livingston’s recent results, they’ve all been very close.
“This was the first time we’ve started really quickly and kept that performance going for 90 minutes.
“That’s the bar that we have to set now. We have to follow that performance up with another really important performance on Saturday.
“We know what Saturday means to the supporters.”
Livingston remain four points adrift at the bottom and without a league win since August.
But after watching his team put up a fight in the weekend’s 4-2 defeat to Celtic, manager David Martindale was furious with his side’s display against United.
He said: “That’s definitely the worst performance we’ve had at home. The position we find ourselves in, I just thought there was a lack of bite, spirit, passion, energy and desire.
“It’s the first time I can seriously question the group. I’m the leader of this group, so don’t think I’m trying to point fingers here, because when I speak about the group – I am the group.
“And defensively, I thought we got bullied at times.”
