United self-destruct in Ayrshire

Dundee United's unbeaten start to the season crashed at Kilmarnock despite a late goal from skipper Jon Daly.

All the damage was done for the visitors during a nine-minute spell early in the second-half as debutant Rory McKenzie seized upon a defensive slip from Barry Douglas to open the scoring immediately after the break.

Three minutes later Borja Perez added another from the penalty spot when Gary Mackay-Steven fouled Danny Racchi, and not long afterwards substitute Jude Winchester grabbed a third as a corner wasn't properly cleared.

Daly managed a reply for the visitors with just over ten minutes remaining but it wasn't much of a consolation.

The opening half had witnessed Killie's Gary Harkins carried off following a clash of heads with Gavin Gunning. Meanwhile, Daly failed to take advantage of a couple of opportunities in a rather forgettable encounter.

The second period was totally the opposite in terms of incident with Douglas immediately losing possession inside his own area and McKenzie beginning the visitors' decline.

That intensified with a couple more rapid goals courtesy of Perez and Winchester following more bad defensive work - thus taking them well out of the contest and in turn right off the top of the table.

Kilmarnock: Letheren, Tesselaar, Fowler, O'Leary, Nelson, Racchi, Kelly, Harkins (Winchester 15), Perez (Johnson 73), Pascali, McKenzie (Gross 81)

subs (unused): Jaakkola, Pursehouse, Dayton, Boulding

Goals: McKenzie (47), Perez (50 pen), Winchester (56)

Dundee United: Cierzniak, Watson, Dillon, Gunning, Douglas, Flood (Dow 80), Rankin, Ryan (Gardyne 53), Mackay-Steven (Armstrong 53), Russell, Daly

subs (unused): Banks, McLean, Millar, Robertson

Goals: Daly (79)

Ref: Crawford

Att: 4,516

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