Rugby Park rout was education for United

Dundee United manager Micky Mellon admits their chastening defeat at Kilmarnock was a major lesson in their return to the top flight.

But he is not viewing tonight' s visit of the A yrshire side as a chance to rectify that painful 4-0 defeat at Rugby Park in August.

United lost by the same scoreline at Ibrox in their next game but have since tightened up, losing 11 goals in their subsequent ten Scottish Premiership games.

Looking back to their first meeting withKil lie, Mellon, pictured, said: "We kind of got sucked in a bit where we left ourselves a wee bit vulnerable and gave away a few sloppy goals. Kilmarnock were able to score four goals against us and all credit to them for that.

"But from our point of view there were basics that you can' t let yourselves down with at this level and we got shown that that day. We over-committed at times and got caught on the counter-attack.

"But we learned from that and made sure we moved on, and that's been par t of our redevelopment as a Premiership team; learning that if you give chances away at this level and don't do the basics well then you will get punished.

"I don' t know if we can get involved in kind of a revenge thing. We are a club that's always said that as we move we would always learn about the group and try to improve.”

Kil lie havesuffered six defeat sin their last seven league outings and have not scored in those losses, slipping to ninth place in the table.

But manager Alex Dyer is refusing to panic. "It's a big period, it always is between Christmas and January, and we have to make sure we're on the money ever y game and pick up enough points to stay in the bunch. If you don't, you'll be looking down rather than up,” he said.