Dundee United 1-2 Aberdeen

Zander Diamond is congratulated on his goal

Aberdeen avenged their Scottish Cup defeat by United at the weekend with a hard-fought win at Tannadice.

They took an early lead when Zander Diamond fired into the net from close range and John Stewart made it two with a deflected effort from 16 yards.

Diamond was sent off for a second bookable offence and Jason Scotland pulled a goal back when he drove the ball past Ryan Esson.

Paul Ritchie was sent off for United, who could not grab an equaliser.

The Dons took the lead on nine minutes after Ritchie had needlessly fouled Darren Mackie on the right side of the penalty area.

When Jamie Winter's floated free-kick came into the middle, the United defence failed to clear and the ball dropped to Diamond, who slammed his shot past the helpless Bullock.

Just before the interval, Scotland turned well and saw his shot beat Esson but Phil McGuire popped up to clear the ball to safety.

On the stroke of half time, the visitors doubled their lead.

Chris Clark's looping cross into the box broke to substitute Stewart, who hammered the ball into the net from 16 yards with the help of a deflection.

McGuire almost made it 3-0 but his header from 12 yards following a Winter corner clipped the crossbar before going over.

Stevie Crawford missed two decent opportunities at the beginning of the second half but in the 55th minute, the Dons were reduced to 10 men when Diamond, booked in the first half for a foul on Barry Robson, was shown another yellow for a foul on the same player.

That gave United fresh impetus and on the hour mark, they got back into the game when Mark Kerr robbed the dithering Clark at the edge of the Dons penalty area, slipped in the unmarked Scotland and the Trinidadian smartly drove his shot from 14 yards past Bullock.

Moments later Scotland caused more havoc when he cut in from the right and his drive across the six-yard box seemed to come off Michael Hart and onto his own post before he cleared the ball away.

As the game drew to a finish, Robson's deflected shot from the edge of the box was tipped over the crossbar by Esson.

In the 88th minute Tannadice skipper Ritchie, booked moments earlier for dissent, was also sent off for a foul on Darren Mackie.

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Dundee Utd: Bullock, Wilson, Ritchie, Archibald, Duff, Grady, Kerr (Dodds 76), Brebner (Callaghan 85), Robson, Crawford, Scotland (Samuel 80).

Subs Not Used: Colgan, Robertson, Cameron, Kenneth.

Sent Off: Ritchie (88).

Booked: Ritchie.

Goal: Scotland 60.

Aberdeen: Esson, Hart, Diamond, Anderson, Byrne, McNaughton, McGuire, Winter, Clark, Whelan (Stewart 25), Mackie, Stewart (Morrison 59).

Subs Not Used: Ilic, Craig, Muirhead, Foster.

Sent Off: Diamond (56).

Booked: Diamond, Winter.

Goals: Diamond 9, Stewart 45.

Att: 6,688

Ref: C Thomson