Dundee United stormed back into the top SPL six with a dominant display against Aberdeen on Monday night.
The first of five games in 12 days at Tannadice saw them jump over Inverness Caley Thistle and Motherwell into fifth spot.
The highlight for the home fans was an acrobatic effort from Danny Swanson to score the Tangerines’ third goal on 60 minutes.
The lowlight for the away fans was a terrible blunder by goalkeeper Jamie Langfield as Craig Conway netted United’s second.
The Tangerines’ opener came from Barry Douglas, with Dons sub Josh Magennis nodding home after Conway’s counter on 51 minutes.
It was all about United, who were a fair bit ahead of their opponents and go into Thursday’s meeting with Hamilton on a high.
“I have to be happy with that,” said boss Peter Houston. “It was a very complete performance from Dundee United tonight.
“I felt we put Aberdeen under a lot of pressure in the first half and I have always said that if I can get Conway and and Swanson in the team at the same time then we will cause people problems.
“We gave Aberdeen a sniff of getting back into it and for 10 minutes after their goal it looked like they were going to score next.
“But after the third goal went in I thought we went on be comfortable winners.Sublime”It was a sublime, brilliant finish from Swanny. One thing you don’t expect from Danny is a left-foot shot but I was really pleased for the wee man as he has had a difficult season.
“He is now starting to show how good a player he is for this football club.”
Dons boss Craig Brown, who felt his skipper Paul Hartley was fouled at the first goal, nevertheless admitted his side was second best.
“The better team won the game, there is no doubt about that,” he said.
“There is no question that that was one of our poorer performances and I can see no reason why that was.”
Houston had vowed to chop and change his selections with the crowded fixture card in mind and he did just that.
Dutchman Timothy van der Meulen returned to central defence alongside Sean Dillon, with the man who covered that position up in Inverness last week, Paul Dixon, calling off ill.
Young Stuart Armstrong dropped down to the bench to make room for Prince Buaben in midfield, while perhaps the biggest surprise of all was the return from injury of Mihael Kovacevic for the first time since the Scottish Cup final, with the big Swiss listed as a sub.
The Dons, backed by a noisy but smaller than usual travelling support, brought back Zander Diamond into the heart of their back line.
The visitors were first to threaten on seven minutes but United goalie Dusan Pernis did really well to keep out Diamond’s close-range header.
The defender cut his head in the process and had to go off to get patched up.
He returned six minutes later, only to immediately pick up the first booking of the night for showing his studs in a challenge on Buaben before Steven Smith made it two Aberdeen yellows in quick succession after hacking down Swanson.
The Tangerines had a go on 21 minutes, with frontman David Goodwillie playing the ball out wide to Keith Watson then getting on the end of his colleague’s cross only for his glancing header to fly a foot wide of the far post.
Gomis hit the post with a drive that rebounded back onto Langfield but the hosts did make the breakthrough on 29 minutes and it was a well-worked opener.
Conway won, then took, a corner on the left in front of the Shed then up jumped Douglas to head home and make it 1-0.
Diamond was replaced by sub Rory McArdle but, on 33 minutes, the home fans were celebrating again as Dons keeper Langfield lived up to his unfortunate nickname of “Clangers”.UnfortunateThere seemed to be little danger for the Dons as Conway collected the ball 25 yards from goal. The United wide man’s shot was decent but it should not have been good enough to beat Langfield.
However, the Dons number one made a hash of it and pushed the ball into his own net.
The home fans rubbed it in, chanting his name and sarcastically cheering his next couple of catches.
On the stroke of half-time, Van der Meulen sent a header wide before United walked off well satisfied with their first-half work.
The visitors made a change at the interval, bringing on Magennis for Sone Aluko, then Swanson had the home supporters on their feet when he whipped in a shot that just cleared the Aberdeen bar by a couple of inches.
The Dons got themselves back in the game on 51 minutes, with Magennis the man to stir things up. Douglas and Pernis seemed to suffer a breakdown in communication as the ball was played into the United box, Scott Vernon took possession then cut back to Magennis, who nodded into the net to make it 2-1.
Robert Milson then tried his luck from distance only for Pernis to dive to his left to save, then United brought on Andis Shala for Conway.
The Tangerines struck woodwork through Goodwillie, then the best goal of the night came along on the hour mark and it was for United.
Goodwillie picked out his pal Swanson inside the box and the wee man produced a spectacular scissors kick that gave Langfield no chance and nearly burst the net. Having treated the crowd to that cracker, Swanson made way for David Robertson on 70 minutes.
Pernis did well to keep out another Magennis effort on 77 minutes before United had a decent shout for a penalty when Goodwillie was felled in the box by McArdle with ref Brian Winter probably unsighted.
Johnny Russell was the final sub of the night, giving Goodwillie a well-earned rest for the last couple of minutes of a fine display by United.
Attendance 7416.
Dundee United Pernis, Watson, Douglas, Dillon, Van der Meulen, S. Robertson, Swanson (D. Robertson 70), Buaben, Gomis, Conway (Shala 54), Goodwillie (Russell 88). Subs not used-Banks, Kovacevic, R. Smith, Armstrong.
Aberdeen Langfield, McNamee (Blackman 75), Diamond (McArdle 31), Considine, Hartley, Vernon, Aluko (Magennis 46), Young, S. Smith, Jack, Milson. Subs not used-Howard, Pawlett, Vujadinovic, Paton.
Referee Brian Winter.