Runaway l leaders target a hat-trick of derby wins
Delirious Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson watched his runaway Championship leaders thrash Ayr United – then urged them to earn the “bragging rights” once more in this Friday night’s Dundee derby.
Neilson’s high-flying Tangerines remain 13 points above nearest challengers Inverness in their quest for the title having made it nine consecutive home league wins with a win over 10-man Ayr who had playerboss Mark Kerr sent off in 57 minutes.
This was the ideal boost going into this week’s televised showdown with city rivals Dundee where they’ll be striving to make it a hat-trick of straight victories over James Mcpake’s Dark Blues.
Sam Stanton broke the deadlock in 42 minutes before Lawrence Shankland’s 57th minute penalty put them further in front, and Nicky Clark secured their latest home Tannadice triumph thanks to his 61st minute strike, prior to American Ian Harkes’ strike in the dying minutes.
Now Neilson, whose table-toppers are strong favourites to put their old foes to the sword at Tannadice again, has challenged his promotion hopefuls to give their long-suffering supporters something else to shout about heading into 2020.
Neilson said: “This is done and dusted now. We’re not interested in it anymore.
“It’s so important for us this derby. 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 make sure we put a marker down and give the bragging rights to our fans.
“Normally, in cities like Dundee you get judged on the derby fixtures, so we’ll be ready for it.”
After back-to-back victories on the road, United struggled to find their feet back on home spoil early on, although Paul Mcmullan did try and free Clark midway through the first-half only to over hit his pass in the final third.
However, the hosts took the lead against the run of play just minutes before the break.
Mcmullan dispossessed Steven Bell down the left. The winger sped into the box and squared for Stanton who finished expertly from point-blank range.
Within 12 minutes of the restart, they had doubled their advantage.
Kerr caught Stanton just as he was about to pull the trigger to leave referee Greg Aitken with no option but to point to the spot.
Kerr was then shown a second yellow card for dissent, but Shankland took no notice as he retained his composure to sweep a firm penalty high past Doohan for his 22nd goal this season.
The hosts killed the contest soon after. Shankland was this time the provider by stepping in from the right and squaring for Clark to apply the finishing touch from close-range.
United didn’t let the tempo drop and it was 4-0 when Harkes found space to take a touch and rifle a 25-yard shot low past the helpless Doohan.