It would be easy to point to the three enforced changes in our back four as the cause of our demise but that would not be fair to our opponents. They dominated the game from first to last and produced some sparkling attacking play to set up their goals.
The biggest cheers for the home side came as ironic groans when Vigurs and Francis-Angol were awarded the Man of the Match awards from our sponsors! If any deserved the praise it was probably Neilsen who delivered several good saves to keep the score down.
We shall remember them
We kicked off with four changes from last week's winning eleven and it soon became clear that Kerr, McManus, Cummins and Francis-Angol were going to have a hard time keeping in touch with the speedy first touches and fast passing that faced them. Sutton had a few half chances before the break but the goals came at the Cooper Stand end from Gauld and Paton.
The opener came after 15 minutes and followed a punched clearance from Neilsen. The ball fell kindly for the youngster and his volley from the edge of the box was palmed high by the 'keeper before it dropped into the net. Two minutes later Francis-Angol was caught in possession wide on the left wing and the resulting cross eventually gave Paton an easy headed goal. Few in the home stands felt there was any chance of a revival.
McFadden replaced the booked Cummins at half time as we geared up for a comeback but it didn't happen. In fact we had no shots on target in the second period. Defensive clearances seemed always to fall to a United shirt and the tactic of finding Sutton with either a ball from deep or the flanks proved fruitless.
Gauld scored a fine second on the hour with a good strike from the left side of the box and with the last kick in added time Robertson completed a day of misery by adding the fourth.
The international break will give some relief and with any luck we'll look more like a top six team when we travel to Kilmarnock in a fortnight.