Dundee United have made their best start to a league season at Tannadice in over 50 years.
Goals from Sam Stanton, Lawrence Shankland (penalty), Nicky Clark and Ian Harkes made it an ultimately comfortable afternoon after they were second best to Ayr United for most of the first half.
The 4-0 scoreline made it nine straight home wins to open up a league campaign.
The last time they did that was on January 1, 1969, when they ushered in the New Year with a 4-2 victory over St Johnstone thanks to strikes from Kenny Cameron (two), Davie Hogg and Ian Mitchell.
Five decades or so on, this was a struggle until the visitors shot themselves in the foot, with a bad error that led to Stanton’s opener and a second-half red card for player-manager Mark Kerr.
The Tangerines had made one change to the side that started the hard-fought win at Arbroath the previous Saturday.
Paul McMullan was back in after coming on as a sub at Gayfield, with Louis Appere dropping down to the bench.
With five minutes on the clock, United keeper Benjamin Siegrist comfortably held a shot from Ayr’s Stephen Kelly then, a minute later, the Swiss goalie dived to cut out a cross from Jordan Houston.
The home side had yet to get into the game and Siegrist came to the rescue again on 12 minutes when he pushed a curling shot from Daniel Harvie away for a corner.
On the half-hour mark, United finally had a shot at goal but Ian Harkes’ strike from outside the box flew well wide.
United had been pretty poor for almost all of the first half – almost – but they still managed to take the lead on 42 minutes.
Stanton was the scorer with a tap-in after McMullan had robbed Ayr’s Steven Bell of the ball out at the left-hand side corner flag then cut back into the six-yard box.
It was the Tannadice midfielder’s second successive goal following his winner at Arbroath the previous weekend.
The hosts, helped by that strike, looked a bit better after the restart.
However, the clear-cut chances were still few and far between until a penalty arrived on 57 minutes.
Stanton collected the ball inside the Ayr box then turned and tried to shoot. His leg was clattered by the boot of Kerr.
The former Tannadice midfielder was booked for the foul then got a straight red card for something he said to referee Greg Aitken.
Shankland stayed away from the furore before stepping up to score the spotkick.
It was all United now and they scored again on 61 minutes when Clark swept the ball into the net after Shankland’s cutback found him.
On 81 minutes, it should have 4-0 when Shankland found himself right in front of goal but headed wide.
That scoreline did become a reality three minutes from time when Harkes sent a low drive flying into the net from 25 yards.
As well as the perfect home league record, United have now won nine games on the bounce and go into Friday’s Dundee derby at Tannadice looking unstoppable.
