Dundee United plunged deeper into relegation trouble as they went down to Inverness Caley Thistle at Tannadice.
With Kilmarnock beating St Johnstone, the gap at the bottom of the Premiership now stands at an alarming eight points with just five post-split fixtures to go.
United almost got off to the perfect start when Guy Demel curled a free kick from just outside the area round the wall. But ‘keeper Owain Fon-Williams blocked and Carl Tremarco hooked the loose ball to safety.
The visitors went ahead in 13 minutes as Ross Draper broke free on the right and squared the ball for Miles Storey to complete the task of scoring. There had been a warning seconds earlier when Storey was denied by a fine Eiji Kawashima save.
The home ‘keeper then had to make good stops from Greig Tansey and Gary Warren to keep the deficit down to one.
And just before the break Storey should have made it two when he blazed a shot over the bar from 12 yards.
Demel went close again early in the second half, but things got worse for the home side when Ian Vigurs fired home a second from 20 yards in 50 minutes.
After that there was no way back on a miserable afternoon for the Tangerines.
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