Kilmarnock4–0Dundee Utd

Dundee United headed down to Ayrshire to face a Kilmarnock team who had not won in their previous ten games. United’s unbeaten away record season to date gave the side good reason to be confident despite playing on the much maligned plastic surface at Rugby Park. Mickey Mellon named an unchanged line up and formation from the unfortunate home defeat against Celtic the previous Saturday.

The game kicked off at 3pm in beautiful sunshine and the early exchanges were even however both teams lacked any cutting edge and goal mouth action was limited. Kilmarnock grew into the game and began to find good opportunities to get crosses into the United box. On the half hour mark a ball swung into the six yard box was met by the Killie striker Nicke Kabamba as he rose between Reynolds and Robson to nod past Benji Siegriest. The United response was tepid despite lots of possession as they struggled to find any cutting edge without star striker Lawrence Shankland. The first half ended with some hapless United defending as a speculative high ball into the United box eluded Mark Connolly and fell to Eamonn Brophy who slammed it home to take Killie into the interval with a comfortable 2-0 lead.

United came out for the second half looking to grab the first goal and get back into a game they struggled to control in the first forty five minutes. Louis Appere came on to replace Nicky Clark with a view to changing the attacking options which had been poor in the first period. Mickey Mellon’s side completely dominated possession after the break but a continued lack of craft and a resolute Killie defence left keeper Danny Rogers virtually untested between the home team’s sticks. McMullan replaced Lewis Neilson with twenty minutes to go as United shook up their formation with one last roll of the dice to get back into the game. As United continued to retain possession in the Killie half the home team broke away on 78 minutes and a Mark Connolly slip gifted Nicke Kabamba a clean run in on goal. The tall Killie man calmly slipped the ball past Siegriest to effectively finish the game as a contest.
The game was drifting to an unsatisfactory conclusion for United when another Kilmarnock counter attack led to the goal of the game. Rory McKenzie’s sublime lob over Benji Siegriest made the scoreline a somewhat flattering 4-0 to the home side.

In summary it was a poor United performance and a harsh lesson for the promoted team with crosses coming into the box too easily, too many basic mistakes in defence and very little cutting edge up front. United dropped to seventh place in the table and with an international break now upon them a period of hard work on the training ground looms ahead of the next game.