United closed down Livingston, and cantered home to a 2-0 win yesterday, but not before the home side had provided ten minutes of early pressure.
Both goals were scored in the first half. Crawford latched on to a Billy Dodds pass from midfield and expertly slotted home, and James Grady got a well-deserved poacher’s goal from close range.
For a full match report click here.
Next week sees us take on Inverness at Tannadice. Three points taken from the Highlanders would most welcome indeed, although it will be harder than yesterday. Livi are severely misfiring, but ex-United legend Craig Brewster has got ICT playing well. It will be tough – but we will have a fuller squad next week – though McInnes will still be missing.
The following weekend sees us welcome Aberdeen for the Scottish Cup QF (Sunday 27th 12 noon kick-off), and the following Wednesday (2nd March) sees Aberdeen return to Tannadice for the league game. After that we have Motherwell and Killie away, before a last four before-the-split of Celtic (h), Hibs (a), Rangers (a) and Hearts (h).
Beating Livi yesterday was a vital result, and the team did their job well – three much-needed points in what is, now (if it wasn’t already) a relegation scrap with Livi, Dundee, the Pars, and us. All, except Livi, won yesterday, and the ‘Lions’ are now red-hot favourites to take the drop. Falkirk look the likely candidates to make it up, and that should be an interesting game for us next year if it happens, with McCall’s Falkirk past. Making quite a few assumptions there in fact!
Next week’s is another vital game, and, to be honest, United will never climb out of the ‘doldrums’ unless they treat every game as a ‘vital game’. There’s no lack of effort at Tannadice, from top to bottom, but sometimes composure and self-belief are lacking. United need to make themselves, again, a tough side to beat – they need to close players down faster, take less time on the ball themselves, stop giving the ball away so easily, basically cut out any unforced errors and be sharper. That’s my two-cents worth anyway. We are in (hopefully) a reasonably well-off position to attract the likes of Stevie Crawford – and that is done through money and future ambitions – these are the things that attract players these days.