Dundee United scraped their way to a valuable victory at Ayr thanks to an early individual goal from Tope Obadeyi.
This wasn’t United at their best by any means but they dug in and battled as they extended their unbeaten run to an impressive 12 matches – 10 of which have been wins
The Tangerines made only one change to the line-up that started the 1-0 success over Hibs eight days earlier.
Into the team came Obadeyi, while Nick van der Velden dropped to the bench. Simon Murray was ruled out by a knee injury.
Big Mark Durnan had United’s first chance on two minutes, with the defender firing a Scott Fraser corner past the post.
Willo Flood was the visitors’ hero when he blocked a netbound Gary Harkins volley at one end before United took the lead at the other.
Six minutes were on the clock when Obadeyi ran half the park before rounding Ayr goalie Greg Fleming then coolly sliding the ball into the empty net.
There followed a period of pressure from the Honest Men against an often sloppy Tannadice team.
Former Dundee favourite Harkins saw a shot deflected for a corner on 13 minutes for the hosts, while Paul Cairney fired wide then Ross Docherty stabbed the ball past the post.
United had faded as an attacking force and should have been pegged back on 37 minutes when Jamie Adams somehow fired over the bar from a yard out. He was challenged by Lewis Toshney as he shot and the United man did a great job to get in the way but it was still an amazing miss.
The visitors, backed by a noisy 700-plus support, could thank themselves extremely lucky to be ahead at the break.
They tried to give themselves more of a cushion on 51 minutes when Tony Andreu drove wide from 20 yards.
The Tangerines brought on Cammy Smith for scorer Obadeyi and Van der Velden for Fraser as they looked for a spark up front.
Ayr were doing most of the pressing but United’s Blair Spittal managed to have a shot saved on 71 minutes then Andreu slid a ball past the far post.
The hosts threw everything at the Tannadice team but somehow they held on and will be delighted with a clean sheet and yet another precious victory that keeps them level with Hibs at the top.
Attendance: 2,049.
Ayr United: Fleming, Devlin, Meggat, Crawford (Gilmour 82), Forrest, Harkins, Cairney (Nisbet 73), Adams (O’Connell 64), Docherty, Balatoni, McKenna. Subs not used: Hart, Rose, McGuffie, Boyle.
Dundee United: Bell, Durnan, Toshney, Spittal, Fraser (Van der Velden 69), Telfer, Edjenguele, Flood, Andreu, Obadeyi (C. Smith 61), Robson. Subs not used: Zwick, Dillon, Donaldson, Murdoch, Allardice.
Referee: W. Collum.
