CHAMPIONSHIP

Two goals by Matthew Smith kick-started Dundee United’s flagging campaign at Palmerston last night as the Tangerines enjoyed a first league win since 2 January.

Csaba Laszlo’s men snapped a three-match losing streak and a run of four Championship matches without a victory in Dumfries to re-establish their topfour position.

United showed character to fight back from a goal down to win with relative ease as Thomas Mikkelsen’s goal together with Smith’s double wiped out Dom Thomas’s opener for Queens.

United were playing for the first time in almost three weeks and there was a breezy pace to proceedings as they looked to make their mark and prevent the Doonhamers leapfrogging them into the Premiership play-off zone.

Mark Durnan pinged a ball into the area which found Mikkelsen but his shot was blocked by Queens keeper Jack Leighfield.

The visitors may have felt their rotten run was about to continue after the Doonhamers took the lead seven minutes later. Thomas, the on-loan Kilmarnock winger, carried the ball to the edge of contest at the start of the second half but two goals in the space of nine minutes by Smith sank the home side.

The young forward deliveredthefirstblowinemphatic fashion with a powerful 25-yard howitzer into the top corner of the net.

It was 3-1 in 57 minutes. A Billy King corner was centred by Paul Quinn with a close-range finish applied by Smith.

Queens’ set-piece defending left a lot to be desired and they found themselves unable to recover.