United win thriller to narrow gap at the top

been underestimating their visitors.

And it was Alloa who took a shock lead against the run of play. United defender Paul Watson was guilty of ball-watching as David Zanatta ghosted in behind him and referee Steven Kirkland pointed straight to the spot after Watson chopped down the Canadian.

Up stepped Trouten with a perfect penalty to send Benjamin Siegrist the wrong way from the spot.

No sooner had Alloa gone ahead then United were level two minutes later.

Fraser Aird did the donkey work as he took a touch and cut the ball back for Nicky Clark, who was well placed to bundle home his finish past Neil Parry.

And they wasted no time in then storming ahead. Aird’s corner caused panic in the Alloa defence and on-loan Pavol Safranko rose unchallenged to bullet home a textbook header.

Aird was unplayable by now and he increased his side’s lead in 35 minutes, sweeping a penalty high into the net after Steven Hetherington had pulled down Paul Mcmullan.

There was no stopping the goals and Alloa gave themselves a lifeline seven minutes before the break. Iain Flanniscape

0 Fraser Aird celebrates after converting from the spot to put Dundee United 3-1 up against Alloa.

gan picked his spot perfectly by curling an unstoppable 22-yard free-kick over the wall and into Siegrist’s net, after Rachid Bouhenna had impeded Zanatta.

United came out after the break looking to kill the contest. They almost did so in 55 minutes. Aird’s glorious cross was met by Clark but Parry fisted away his goal-bound

header. Alloa had a golden opportunity to equalise in the 69th minute as Zanatta got the better of the home team’s offside trap and raced clean through on Siegrist.

But just as he was about to pull the trigger, William Edjenguele got back and thwarted him with a superb sliding challenge.

United substitute Craig

Curran then made an instant impact by latching on to Sam Stanton’s pass to slide home their killer fourth goal.