Cami Elliott scored a hat-trick as East Kilbride beat Peterhead 3-1 to end a run of three straight League One defeats, but manager Mick Kennedy described the display as their "worst performance of the season".
Kilby had slipped to sixth in the table after losses to Montrose, Ross County and Hamilton Academical, but the win at K-Park lifted them back into the play-off places.
Kennedy unimpressed despite victory
Kennedy told Lanarkshire Live Sport: "I'm pleased to get the three points but I wasn't overly happy with the performance, to be fair.
"It is probably our worst performance of the season. We should have been out of sight, two or three more goals up at half-time, because we missed some really good chances and then let them right back into it just after half-time."
He added: "The game was really poor in terms of quality, really scrappy, but I think we deserved to win the game over the piece.
"We played 10 times better against Hamilton last week and got nothing from that. We were far better at Airdrie and drew the game, we were far better other weeks as well and not taken something, so we are happy in that context."
Elliott strikes twice after Peterhead leveller
Elliott headed Kilby into a 14th-minute lead, and Callum McKenzie and Joao Balde both missed chances before the break to extend the advantage.
Peterhead equalised two minutes into the second half when Lyall Keir fired past Shay Kelly. Celtic youngster Liam Kennedy came on for his debut after 52 minutes, replacing Balde, while Sam Culbert, who joined on a season-long loan from Livingston the previous day, was an unused substitute.
The Blue Toon held firm until the 74th minute, when substitute Malik Zaid set up Elliott for his second. Elliott completed his hat-trick in the 89th minute with a free-kick into the bottom corner.
Kennedy: We'll take the positives
Kennedy said: "Once we got the early goal, we had two or three really good chances to extend our lead and didn't take them.
"Even with the opportunities we had, I still thought we were really poor. We went in at half-time, had a chat and then we started the second half really slowly.
"Peterhead got a goal early on and then it became really scrappy, although we looked like the only team capable of scoring.
"We've had a lot of boys out injured and some came back today [Malik Zaid and Finlay Gray], but you can see they are still not quite there yet. so we'll take the positives we can and move on.
"It is just good to get a win after three defeats on the bounce because we weren't at our best."
