Rob wants derby hat-trick in brag

Neilson aims to put down marker on Tayside

del ighted with the performance and effort of the players. We are looking up the table now.”

Annan staged a late revival and could have cut the deficit to one – but Tommy Muir’s penalty was saved. Their manager Peter Murphy said: “We let ourselves down.” Cowdenbeath...3 Stenhousemuir.....1

“The scoreline f lattered them. We played really well and were unfortunate not to have taken something from the game.”

Opposite number Gary Bollan didn’t agree. He said: “We were outstanding throughout with loads of effort, a good bit of quality and three goals.” Dundee United boss Rob b i e N e i l s o n watched his runaway leaders thrash Ayr – then urged them to earn the bragging rights in the city derby.

His high-flying Tangerines remain 13 points clear of nearest challengers Inverness having made it nine home league wins in a row against 10 - men Ay r who ha d player-boss Mark Kerr sent off in 57 minutes.

This was the ideal boost going into this Friday’s live clash with rivals Dundee.

Sam Stanton broke the deadlock in 42 minutes before Lawrence Shankland, Nicky Clark and Ian Harkes put the result beyond doubt.

Ayr boss Kerr failed to speak to the press afterwards but Neilson, whose table-toppers are favourites to put their old foes to the sword for a third time this season, challenged his players to give the fans something else to shout about heading into 2020.

He said: “This is done and dus ted now. We’re not interested in it anymore.

“This derby is so important for us. It’s the big game of the season without question.

“We’ve already had two good results against Dundee so we want another one. “After this derby we don’t have another one for about four months so we need to put a marker down and give the bragging r ights to our supporters. “We’re sitting in a

Dundee Utd..........4 Ayr..........................0

Euan McArthur