Watch highlights as Dundee United win 3-0 against Ross County in the Scottish Premiership.

Martin Dowden
BBC Sport Scotland at Tannadice

Dundee United's impressive return to the Scottish Premiership continues as they ease aside Ross County to maintain their fourth-place position.

Manager Jim Goodwin was rewarded with a contract extension this week and his players showed by with an accomplished victory.

After an even opening 45 minutes, United seized the initiative immediately after half-time. Vicko Sevelj signalled that with a thunderous shot off a post, but the opener arrived shortly after.

Will Ferry flashed in a wonderful cross from the left which found Luca Stephenson racing in and to plant a diving header beyond Ross Laidlaw.

United continued to search for a second and that intent was rewarded when Sam Dalby raced clear and showed real composure to jab the ball home.

County, who had been resolute defensively in the opening period, just couldn't create enough to find a route back into it, with goals becoming increasingly hard to come by for Don Cowie's side.

The seal on an impressive win for United was delivered when 17-year-old Owen Stirton came off the bench and nodded home from eight yards.

His celebrations were matched by those of a home support who are surely delighted with their start to the campaign.

United's impressive start rolls on

When a side gain promotion, the priority has to be retaining their Premiership place. But United's ambitions may be growing after such a strong start.

Three points here, heading into an international break, gives an opportunity to reflect on a job very well done so far.

Goodwin's reward with an extended contract brings stability to him, the club and the squad.

Here, what seemed key was the intent they showed after the break. Until then, they had tried to create but were frustrated by a well-drilled County.

After that, they swarmed forward and didn't settle for one goal. That has to be encouraging.

The goals were of a high quality and the impact of Stirton was the cherry on top.

United are signalling what a club of their size should. They are showing they have Premiership presence.

County crumble after showing defensive capability

At half-time, a 3-0 defeat did not seem on the cards. County looked fairly comfortable, well organised and defensively stout.

They just didn't find the required reaction after United upped their level.

It seems a slight conundrum right now, finding the balance between being solid and being a threat, particularly when wins are so important in this league and can quickly change your position so quickly.

Away form is concerning, though. It's been a long, long time since they've registered a league win on the road and that is proving very costly.

Overall, County seem to have improved since last campaign and will look to find more threat ahead of their home fixture against Motherwell next time out.

What they said

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin: "We're really pleased with the performance. We started the game slow, but second-half performance was a really dominant one.

"We played good football, moved it about well, good tempo. We got numerous deliveries into the box and we scored three really good goals.

"It's our most complete performance of the season so far."

Ross County manager Don Cowie: "I always expect more, demand more. You concede goals - it's about how you react, deal with adversity and we didn't do that well enough.

"Our away form is an issue and it'll always be an issue until we we deal with it. Every away game is an opportunity to try and get that monkey off our back."

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