Dundee United 4
Ayr United 0
League (Championship)
Dundee United |
4 - 0 |
Ayr United |
 |
League (Championship) |
 |
| Goalscorers | |
| Stanton (42'), Shankland (57'pen), Clark (61'), Harkes (87') | None. |
| Team Managers | |
| Unknown. |
Mark Kerr |
| Starting Eleven | |
|
1 Siegrist 2 Smith 44 Watson 6 ReynoldsS 17 Robson 18 Butcher 23 Harkes 7 McMullan 10 Clark 12 Stanton 24 Shankland |
Ross Doohan .1 Daniel Harvie .3 Steven Bell .15 Jordan Houston Aaron Muirhead .2 Stephen Kelly .30 Mark Kerr .4 Alan Forrest .10 Ross Docherty .23 Luke McCowan .11 Craig Moore |
| Bench | |
|
3 Sporle 5 Connolly 11 Smith 13 Mehmet 19 Brown 25 King 27 Appere |
Ellis Hare Reid .19 Sam Roscoe .5 Finn Ecrepont Mark McKenzie .22 Craig McGuffie .12 Andrew Geggan .6 Michael Moffat .7 |
| Substitutions | |
| None. |
Craig McGuffie for Luke McCowan (48) Andrew Geggan for Ross Docherty (69) Michael Moffat for Craig Moore (73) |
| Cautions | |
| None. |
Mark Kerr Craig Moore |
| Red Cards | |
| None. |
Mark Kerr (56) |
| Match Officials | |
|
Greg Aitken (Referee) |
Match Report
Runaway Scottish Championship leaders Dundee United roared to their ninth straight win by thumping Ayr United.
Sam Stanton opened the scoring before Ayr were reduced to 10 men after player-manager Mark Kerr was shown a second yellow for bringing down Stanton in the area.
Lawrence Shankland scored the resultant penalty, then set up Nicky Clark for the third before Ian Harkes' strike.
It means United are 13 points clear of Inverness Caledonian Thistle.
Their next game is against city rivals Dundee on Friday, while Ayr in third take on Queen of the South.
Dundee United manager Robbie Neilson: "I was delighted to get the result and I thought the second half was far better.
"The teams around us won so it was very important to get the win to set us up for the derby."
Match report written by BBC
Squad Statistics (as at December 21st, 2019)
| 2019-20 | All Time | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | Nat |  |
 |
|
|
|
| Ross Doohan (GK) | 21 |
|
22 | - | 67 | - |
| Aaron Muirhead | 29 |
|
19 | - | 28 | 1 |
| Jordan Houston | 19 |
|
14 | - | 14 | - |
| Steven Bell | 34 |
|
11 | - | 58 | 3 |
| Daniel Harvie | 21 |
|
22 | 1 | 64 | 1 |
| Ross Docherty | 26 |
|
21 | 2 | 144 | 8 |
| Alan Forrest | 23 |
|
22 | 8 | 232 | 54 |
| Mark Kerr | 37 |
|
13 | - | 55 | - |
| Stephen Kelly | 19 |
|
22 | 5 | 22 | 5 |
| Luke McCowan | 22 |
|
21 | 8 | 31 | 9 |
| Craig Moore | 25 |
|
9 | 3 | 122 | 51 |
| Andrew Geggan (sub) | 32 |
|
18 | 1 | 81 | 8 |
| Craig McGuffie (sub) | 22 |
|
13 | 3 | 106 | 10 |
| Michael Moffat (sub) | 34 |
|
23 | 6 | 162 | 63 |
League Table (as at December 21st, 2019)
No league table has been added for this season.