Dundee United coach Darren Jackson says he hasn’t been surprised to see striker Kris Boyd setting the heather on fire on his return to Scottish football.
Boyd looks to have rediscovered his top form of late and has netted 15 goals for Kilmarnock this term, producing performances that have seen him back in the national team’s plans.
The 30-year-old hitman will head to Tannadice on Saturday looking to increase his tally still further, and Jackson reckons Boyd’s hunger for goals has clearly not diminished despite disappointing stints down south, in Turkey and over in the States.
“Boyd hasn’t surprised me with how well he’s done,” he said. “I know it’s easy to say that now but a goal scorer is a goal scorer and he’ll always score goals.
“I was down at Largs in the summer and he was doing his coaching badges and I don’t know whether that has maybe given him a wee incentive as well.
“Sometimes when you see the other side of it you think: ‘Well, I like that but I want to keep playing as long as I can’.
“But he’s a fantastic goal scorer and has shown that throughout his career, and I think when you get involved in the coaching you appreciate the playing side a bit more.
“When you’re young you always say you don’t want to be a coach or a manager, but once you go down to the SFA courses you realise you want to stay in the game but actually play as long as you can.”
Jackson, who helps to oversee the development of United’s strike force at Tannadice, believes Boyd has shown he can adapt his game over the years and admits he will be a key danger man for United when the teams meet.
“I think when Kris was playing in a Rangers team he probably didn’t have to do as much work as he’s doing now and that’s no disrespect to this Kilmarnock team,” he said.
“He was playing in a good Rangers team where boys were creating a lot of chances for him, and while the Kilmarnock boys are creating chances, he’ll be creating a lot more for himself than when he was at Ibrox.
“I think experience makes you a better player as well and he’s added a lot more to his game.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if he got one more big move in his career. People will have noticed how many goals he’s scoring for Kilmarnock, so I’d imagine people would be interested.”
United have enjoyed a good record against Killie so far this season and scored nine goals against them in the space of just over two weeks at the end of 2013, following up a 5-2 Scottish Cup win with a 4-1 success in the league at Rugby Park.
So Jackson knows his side can hurt Saturday’s visitors, although returning to winning ways in the league by whatever means necessary is the first aim.
He continued: “We will be more determined to kick on after ending a disappointing run. We watched the video back against St Mirren and we played a lot of good football and deserved more than two goals.
“I thought everyone did very well but we needed the front two to get back on track and it was a great performance.
“We won’t go into the game thinking: ‘We’ve scored nine against Kilmarnock, we can do the same again’.
“They’ve got their confidence up and are playing a lot better and have brought in a really talented player in Alexei Eremenko, they’ve got a goal scorer in Kris Boyd and boys who are working very hard, but it’s about what we do.
“We hope this is the start of another good run,” added Jackson.
“We just needed to get back to basics a bit and keep passing the ball, and we did that well from the back with the two centre-backs and the two full-backs getting forward, especially Andy Robertson.
“The two in the middle of the park controlled things and the forwards created and thankfully took chances.
“We just needed a bit of confidence in front of goal and to try and get our noses in front and I think we can take it on.”
United defender Gavin Gunning has trained but remains a doubt for the clash.
Meanwhile, United confirmed that central defender Paddy Barrett has left the club by mutual consent.
The 20-year-old Irishman signed in October 2010 and played fairly regularly in the youth ranks, but now leaves with the best wishes of all at Tannadice.