Date	Saturday, 29 August 2015
Competition	Scottish Premiership
Fixture/Score	Ross County 2:1 Dundee United
Venue	Global Energy Stadium at Victoria Park
Attendance	4,014
Referee	Craig Thomson
Comments	Match Report Report by Scott Davie for the BBC. Ross County 2 Dundee United 1 Two first-half goals helped Ross County to three Premiership points as Dundee United's troubles continue. Liam Boyce's penalty put County in charge in Dingwall before Staggies captain Andrew Davies added another from Jonathan Franks' pass. Dundee United fought back after the interval through Sean Dillon's drive from outside the box and Blair Spittal hit the crossbar. But County held on and Jackson Irvine and Franks both had efforts blocked. The victory for Jim McIntyre's side makes it three league wins in the first month of the season, the first time the Highlanders have hit that mark prior to Christmas in their four seasons in the top flight. In contrast, the struggling Taysiders have made their worst start to a season in 12 years, with four points from six matches. Billy McKay went straight into the Dundee United starting line-up after completing his season-long loan from English League One side Wigan Athletic. The hope was the striker could reproduce the form that saw him score 62 goal in 141 games for Inverness Caley Thistle and compensate for the loss of Nadir Ciftci to Celtic. That, and the other players who have been sold by the Tannadice club in recent times, clearly still annoys their supporters who let chairman Stephen Thompson know what they thought of him early on. The travelling fans were unhappy when referee Craig Thomson awarded County a controversial penalty after 17 minutes for handball against Mark Durnan. It looked as though the former Queen of the South defender was pushed onto the ball by one of the Staggies players, but Thomson thought otherwise. Boyce celebrated his return to the Northern Ireland squad for next week's Euro 2016 qualifiers by ramming in the spot kick for his fifth goal in the last four matches. Ryan Dow twice raced clear but the visitors' slack finishing was nothing compared to their poor defending as the Dingwall side moved two goals clear. Ryan McGowan got back to make a goal-line clearance to deny Franks but from the winger's resulting corner Davies was allowed the space to clip in the Staggies' second after 28 minutes. United were much more aggressive after the break and Dillon brought them right back into the game with a goal that was as spectacular as it was rare from their captain. There seemed little threat when he picked up possession 30 yards from goal but the Irishman lashed home a stunning shot for only his sixth strike in eight years at Tannadice. Spittal then went within the width of the crossbar of levelling the match with a curling free-kick from 25 yards that beat Scott Fox but not the frame of the goal. Jackie McNamara insists he should be judged on what he has done since taking over as Dundee United manager and not on this year's results alone. A 2-1 defeat at Dingwall means the Terrors have made their worst start to any league campaign since Ian McCall was in charge 12 years ago. "People look at records but you look at things as a whole, not just the last few months," he said. "We are disappointed to lose but this is a new season. This is a new team. " United have now picked up only 15 points from the last 63 available going back to January when the club started selling some of their top talent to Celtic. Those statistics make for grim reading but McNamara remains defiantly optimistic about his plans to revive the team he took over two and a half years ago. Poor defending from corners in the first half saw Ross County race into a two-goal interval lead courtesy of a Liam Boyce penalty and captain Andrew Davies's first goal for the Staggies. However, the under-pressure Dundee United manager was encouraged by the fighting spirit shown by his men after the interval and feels they should have taken something tangible from it. All they got was the consolation of a fabulous long-range effort from Sean Dillon but McNamara is convinced the critics should look at the bigger picture when judging him. He told BBC Scotland: "We look at what has happened here over the last two and half years and not just more recently. "It was disappointing not to get anything from the game but I believe that we are close to getting it right." Part of that rebuilding process was the addition of Billy McKay on a season-long loan from English League One club Wigan Athletic. The hope is the man who scored 62 goals in 141 games for Inverness Caley Thistle can be just as prolific at Tannadice. But McNamara points out the Northern Ireland international showed he can offer much more than that to the team after an impressive first start for the club. He added: "I was delighted with Billy McKay as he showed for some great runs and held the ball up well for us as well. "He's going to be a really good player for us as he showed real awareness in the way he put Ryan Dow clear a couple of times." While McKay's lack of first-team action means he is not in Michael O'Neill's Northern Ireland squad, Ross County scorer Boyce was chosen by O'Neill for the Euro qualifiers away to Cyprus and at home to Hungary. Boyce's penalty made it five goals in the last four games and Staggies manager Jim McIntyre could not be more thrilled to see his side get international recognition. McIntyre said: "I'm delighted for Liam as he works ever so hard for the team. "He's in great shape right now and he really puts in a shift to help us get results and score goals himself. "Wherever he's been he's scored goals and it's great that Jackson Irvine is also going away with the Australian national team. "We have got good players here who are producing good results and performances and international managers will be taking note." Irvine faces an arduous time as he heads back to Australia to face Bangladesh before travelling to Tajikistan for their second match. When he returns it will be to a club side who have as many points now as they did by 27 December last season and his club manager admits that is a major plus. He said: "It's huge to these points on board so early in the season as obviously we have started this season much better than the last one. "Now the aim is to continue that and we want to make sure that Dingwall is a hard place for any team to come to." Both McNamara and McIntyre are working hard to try to add players to their squad before the transfer window closes.
Ross County
Manager	Jim McIntyre
Starting 11	1: Scott Fox 1, 2: Marcus Fraser 1, 3: Jamie Reckord, 4: Rocco Quinn, 6: Christopher Robertson, 7: Michael Gardyne, 10: Liam Boyce 1 (1 pen), 11: Craig Curran, 15: Andrew Davies 1, 17: Jonathan Franks, 36: Jackson Irvine 1
Bench	21: Daniel Bachmann, 5: Scott Boyd, 8: Ian McShane, 9: Brian Graham, 12: Richard Foster, 18: Stewart Murdoch, 24: Raffaele De Vita
Dundee United
Manager	Jackie McNamara
Starting 11	Luis Maria Zwick, Sean Dillon 1, Paul Dixon 1, Ryan McGowan, Mark Durnan, John Souttar, John Rankin, Ryan Dow, Billy McKay, Christopher Erskine, Blair Spittal
Bench	Robbie Muirhead, Marc McCallum, Charles Telfer, Aidan Connolly, Scott Fraser, Coll Donaldson 1, Darko Bodul