Neil McCann lauds Findlay Curtis after Kilmarnock goal in front of Steve Clarke

Kilmarnock manager Neil McCann was full of praise for Rangers loanee Findlay Curtis after the young winger scored in front of watching Scotland manager Steve Clarke during his side’s impressive 3-0 win over Dundee United.

Curtis coolly slotted home Killie’s second, while Robbie Deas and Joe Hugill were also on target as the Ayrshire side moved out of the bottom two for the first time in 18 matches.

Kilmarnock’s win, combined with St Mirren’s 1-0 loss to Dundee, saw them move up into 10th place, while they also moved clear of automatic relegation danger, with this victory confirming Livingston’s relegation to the Championship.

McCann said: “It’s a really big moment for everybody concerned with Kilmarnock, because we’ve been stuck in that bottom two for such a long time.

“So it feels nice, actually, that everybody can go and enjoy their weekend now. But there’s nothing done yet. We’ve only managed to win another game.

“I think Findlay (Curtis) showed that he’s got a level of maturity for one so young.

“Whether it’s his performance at right-back or outside left, I think what he’s done today is just show that he can be a big player, never mind his age, coming here.

“It’s a big risk for a boy to come here, you know, leaving a club like Rangers.

“A lot of people would just sit and enjoy being a bit part. But he’s shown really strong personality to come in and fit into the group.

“What Steve (Clarke) does with his squad is up to him but all I said to Findlay was, ‘this is an opportunity for you’ because we knew Steve was coming and he’s taken it with a goal.

“I actually thought he did really well in the first half against a really dangerous player in Will Ferry, who’s been in goalscoring form. It shows his adaptability.

“But we know where Findlay’s best. And he showed how good he is with a class finish.”

Jim Goodwin, meanwhile, admitted that United struggled to hit the heights of last weekend’s dominant win in the derby against Dundee, with United second best throughout against a pumped-up Kilmarnock.

Goodwin’s side sit comfortably in seventh place in the league and he defended his decision to make a number of changes, in an attempt to utilise the squad at this stage of the season.

He said: “Last weekend was obviously a really important game for us and the boys performed fantastically to get all three points and keep a clean sheet. Today we weren’t up to those standards unfortunately.

“I thought Kilmarnock for the first 60-65 minutes were better than us in every department.

“There’s no getting away from the fact that the three goals we concede are extremely poor from our point of view.

“Without sounding like a broken record, for anybody who watches the game back and analyses the goals that we concede, they are not chances that we would have given up last weekend.

“Whether that’s a mentality thing or what, it’s hard to put your finger on it.

“I don’t think it’s anything to do with character. I made lots of changes to the starting XI. Some of them were forced through injury.

“Maybe that disrupted the flow of the team but I stand by those decisions because we’re at a stage of the season where we’re pretty comfortable in seventh at the moment.”