Dundee United manager Micky Mellon told his players they had set new standards to maintain following their 3-0 win over Livingston.

United followed up their away victory against Ross County with an excellent three points at Tannadice to move back into the Scottish Premiership top six.

Adrian Sporle's first-minute strike and a Lawrence Shankland double earned United the win despite losing Peter Pawlett to a 31st-minute red card. The hosts doubled their lead before Jack Fitzwater's dismissal evened up the teams just after the hour mark.

Mellon, whose side face Rangers next Sunday, told DUTV: "We know we have got good players. We are Premiership players now. I have seen enough now to know I've got good players here.

"If we hit that tempo and that togetherness and that work rate then we will create something that's very, very good here.

"That's the standard we have got to be held to, and I will always be fair with that. But when you crate a new standard and you see the way we can play, then and anything below that we won't accept, and nobody should accept.

"That's the standard now and we have got to aim to get above that, keep getting better and better. We can't rest and say we have achieved anything yet. All we have done is get a good result.

"We will work hard again all next week and then we have a brilliant game to go to down in Glasgow."

After 14 games unbeaten, it was a second defeat in a row for Livingston.

Manager David Martindale, who lost Scott Robinson to injury, told LFC Live: "This is why I spoke about not getting too high and not getting too low.

"To be honest we have not changed anything we were doing through the 14-game unbeaten run and I don't think the boys have either.

"I don't think it got to their heads. If it got to their heads, you wouldn't have gone 14 unbeaten.

"It's just my job to make sure this doesn't get to their heads.

"The last two games have not been good enough and we need to quickly find a way to return to what we do best."