Lee Clark revealed that he locked referee Willie Collum out of the Kilmarnock dressing room to show his troops a motivational video ahead of their play-off triumph over Falkirk.

The Rugby Park side battered the beleaguered Bairns in Ayrshire yesterday to claim a 4-0 victory (4-1 on aggregate) to triumph in the Ladbrokes Premiership play-off and maintain their 23-year status as a top-flight team.

It is a reality that will surely still be setting in to a group of players who went into yesterday’s home second leg 1-0 down and rocking after Will Vaulks’ 91st-minute winner on Thursday night.

However, the Killie boss revealed how whistler Collum was stopped from interrupting the clip shown to the players just seconds before they took to the field.

“We have done that a few times now and did it before both legs,” explained Clark.

“We did it on Thursday and we did it today. The referee tried to intercept but we kicked him back out!

“We locked him out of the dressing room.

“For me it’s brilliant that we have delivered a performance like that in front of a big crowd. It means that come the start of next season, when they see the type of player we bring into the football club, we might attract more along.”

Greg Kiltie opened the scoring on three minutes before Miles Addison bundled home a second six minutes later.

Kilmarnock were utterly dominant and rightly got a third on 62 minutes as Kiltie slotted home his second, while veteran striker Kris Boyd got in on the act soon after as he rolled into an empty net following a lung-bursting Josh Magennis run.

It bring a positive end to a dismal season that saw Killie finish second bottom of the Premiership, but Clark is keen to look to the likes of St Johnstone, Ross County and Motherwell – who survived last season’s play-off final by beating Rangers 6-1 – and mount a top-six challenge after the summer.

He said: “Why can’t we emulate what Ross County, Motherwell and St Johnstone have done?”

“My big pal at St Johnstone has been brilliant over the last few years.

“I don’t expect us to suddenly have a budget of Celtic or Rangers or Hearts or Aberdeen. I’m not crazy, I’m realistic.

“But those teams have shown consistently what can be done if you’re recruitment is right and you can bring in the right mentality.

“And I believe I can do that.”

Falkirk manager Peter Houston was understandably far from buoyant when he arrived in the Rugby Park press room after the match.

Many had tipped his team of youngsters interspersed with seasoned pros to finish off what they had started on Thursday night, despite the fact they were perhaps fortunate to hold the advantage coming into yesterday’s second leg.

However, it was an occasion that his players simply didn’t live up to and, in all honesty, looked overawed by from the first whistle to the last.

He said: “I feel really sad we didn’t put in a performance the fans deserved.

“But over the course of the season they have seen plenty of performances that made them happy.

“Last year we got to the Cup final, this year it’s the play-off final, which I think it’s a stride forward.

“We found out that we have to get better. Do we need to be more physical, have more pace? There’s a few things we’ve learned.

“I refuse to criticise the players. We were not expected to be here but it just shows the measure of improvement in the last 18 months.

“They’ve put everything in to this season but we now face another season in the Championship.

“It will be even tougher so we need to improve.”