A 75th minute goal by Jim McIntyre briefly reduced the Celtic advantage to two but two more goals by the Glasgow club in the last quarter of an hour gave them a comprehensive 5-1 victory.
This game represented the completion of the first third of the season before the 6/6 split takes effect and United fans will take some comfort from the fact that the team is twelve points ahead of where they were at this stage last season. Today's performance against Celtic, however, underlined there is much still to do if the Tangerines are to re-establish themselves this season at the top end of the league.
A full match report is available in the Results and Fixtures section.