DUNDEE United found their best form of the season as they ruthlessly exploited Dunfermline’s frailties to jump above them into second place.
They had better performers all over the park and won comfortably thanks to Fraser Fyvie’s double and a Scott McDonald strike.
Ominously for the rest, things appear to be clicking into place for the Championship favourites.
Manager Ray McKinnon said: “I thought the boys were excellent.
“I think it was the best we have played this season. We were mostly in control, limited them to very little and scored good goals.
“That’s the Fraser Fyvie we all know and it’s taken him until recently to get to his normal level because he had to find his fitness in games.
“His second goal might be goal of the season.”
Dunfermline had been in control of the game, without hurting United, when they were caught on the counter-attack 10 minutes before half-time.
It was great work from Jamie Robson who burst down the left and whipped over a cross that Sean Murdoch could only palm away into the path of Fyvie who fired a left foot shot past the Dunfermline keeper.
Then, two minutes before half-time, United struck again and it was poor defending from Dunfermline that allowed them the opportunity.
They failed to deal with James Keatings’ free kick from the right side and the first player to react was Scott McDonald who, like all good poachers, was in the right place to sweep the loose ball into the net.
United should have scored again in first half injury time when their opposition were caught on a counter-attack.
James Keatings led the charge and slid the ball through to Paul McMullan who was blocked by Callum Morris, but the ball broke kindly to Billy King, whose mishit shot struck the face of the crossbar.
They got the third 14 minutes into the second half and it was something special from Fyvie.
United had been pressuring Dunfermline on the right side and when Billy King’s cross was not properly cleared Fyvie ran on to it and slammed a fantastic right foot shot into the top-right corner from 22 yards.
Dunfermline managed to pull a goal back 13 minutes from time but there was never any real prospect of a comeback.
Declan McManus’s cross took a deflection which aided substitute Callum Smith who powered a header past Harry Lewis.
The win has taken United above Dunfermline into second place and there was no masking Allan Johnston’s disappointment.
He said: “We have to handle it better when we lose a goal and I think we were a wee bit naïve and got caught on the counter-attack.
“We have to defend better and we need to learn from it but there is a long way to go.
“We have a lot of young boys but we just hope that they react in the right way.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here