A late Mark Durnan strike earned victory over Ayr to move Dundee United to just a point behind second place in the Championship promotion race.
After their weekend Challenge Cup triumph the Tangerines were made to fight all the way for their Tannadice 2-1 win.
Teenager Ali Coote dropped to the bench and his place was taken by Alex Nicholls for the only change to the United line-up.
The visitors restored former Dundee favourite Gary Harkins to the starting line-up after he was benched for the weekend win over Dumbarton.
United made all the early running, but it took them until the 23rd minute to turn their possession into a deserved lead.
It came when Simon Murray, one of the weekend final heroes, skipped inside one defender before drilling a shot between Ayr goalie Greg Fleming’s legs and into the back of the net.
The Honest Men, desperately needing points to stay above St Mirren at the foot of the Championship, tried to strike back and Harkins saw a shot blocked by Mark Durnan. Then Conrad Balatoni had a header at goal, but Cammy Bell saved comfortably.
At the other end Fleming couldn’t hold a Charlie Telfer corner and when William Edjenguele got his head to the ball it was cleared off the line.
Five minutes into the second half Ayr were level after Tony Andreu fouled Rab Crawford and referee Barry Cook immediately pointed to the penalty spot. Harkins stepped up and calmly sent Bell the wrong way for the equaliser.
United pressed forward looking to get back in front. Andreu almost made amends for giving away the spot kick when he shot from the edge of the area only to see Fleming make a good save. The ‘keeper palmed the ball away and when Nicholls fired in the rebound it ended up in the side netting.
The home attacks continued and Fleming was the hero again when he stopped a low Murray shot with his feet.
United were back in front in the 79th minute. A Telfer corner was only cleared to the edge of the area and when Murray headed the ball back towards goal, Duran was there to hook it home. That proved enough to secure three valuable points.
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