Rangers continued their march towards the title with a comprehensive victory at Tannadice.
On a pitch bare in many patches and barely acceptable for a SPL game, the visitors only took ten minutes to open the scoring courtesy of a woeful mistake from Gary Bollan.
After four successive corners, Peter Lovenkrands fired in a cross from the left which the United captain completely misjudged allowing the ball to fall to Ronald de Boer. The Dutchman wasted no time in shooting the ball in low under Paul Gallacher from eight yards.
Rangers doubled their lead seven minutes later with the simplest of goals. De Boer, who was the main threat for the visitors, showed some trickery on the left before swinging in a corner and presenting Shota Arveladze with a three-yard present. The unmarked striker nodded past Gallacher.
Being totally outplayed, the Tangerines almost gave themselves a lift five minutes later when Mark Wilson cracked the bar towards goal from the edge of the box while Craig Easton saw his goalbound shot blocked.
However, it was game over on the stroke of half time when de Boer knocked in the third.
Stealing the ball from Stuart Duff in the middle of the pitch, he slid the ball out to Mikel Arteta. The Spaniard easily brushed past Bollan, returning the ball for his striker to beat the static Gallacher and dink the ball over the diving keeper.
With Ian McCall's fury ringing in their ears, United began the second period far more determined and were denied three times in the opening five minutes by the brilliance of Stefan Klos.
They continued to drive forward but a combination of bad finishing and solid defending prevented a consolation goal.
As in the first half, the Terrors were penalised for not taking their chances when Rangers added a fourth with their first attack of the half.
De Boer easily beat Jamie Paterson before finding Arveladze who thumped home a 20-yard shot via the crossbar.
Finally, United earned their consolation in the 72nd minute when Bollan headed on a corner for ex-Ger Billy Dodds to prod the ball in.