Dundee Utd 1
Hibernian 0
League (SPL)

Manager's Programme Notes

There is no doubt the last seven days have been a big week for the football club. In the wake of Craig Levein's departure, results by everyone's admission were disappointing, but to come through two difficult games through in the west with two victories is hugely satisfying. went through a bad few days after Craig Left but seem to have come through that now. After the Aberdeen game, the players had a wee chat among themselves which I didn't know about, to sort some things out and it has shown in the way we have posted those wins at Partick Thistle and at Hamilton in midweek. There is no doubt that the defeat to Rangers at Ibrox hurt the players and backroom staff as much as the supporters. It was very much the low point after I took over. Particularly when you consider that for the first 20 minutes or so, Rangers didn't cause us any major problems. Yet we went in three down at the break, and after that by changing things by putting on another striker, it seemed to be doing okay, instantly getting a goal. Then for 15 minutes after that I got quite excited because we looked well capable of getting back into the match. But having given away three easy goats in the first half, the manner in which we conceded the fourth was embarrassing. And to then concede three more against ten men was unacceptable. We had a lot of good punters through there who spent a lot of money to get here and we let them and ourselves down big style. No Dundee United team should lose to Rangers or any team by seven goals to one. So it was embarrassing and I can only apologise to our supporters.

Unfortunately that spilled over into our last home game when our first half performance was very poor and Aberdeen looked the livelier lot. However, in the second half, we totally dominated, and when you think of the chances - we had thought we created more chances in the second half than Aberdeen did in the full 90 minutes - and therefore deserved to take something from the game. After those two disappointments, a Lot of people thought an upset was possibly on the cards when we travelled to Firhill last Saturday, but the battling qualities so Lacking in the first half against the Dons were back in abundance against Partick. Their keeper had three or four saves from Casalinuovo and the likes and kept them in the game. In fact the tie could have been wrapped up at half time. Credit to Thistle, they worked us for the full 90 minutes, but at no time did I think we were going to lose. Indeed the controversy over Damian's opener, which went in off his hand, though it wasn't deliberate, tended to detract from the fact that we deserved our 2-0 victory. The players had been a bit apprehensive after a few bad results, but I thought they were back on form at Firhill and we got the wee break that had eluded us recently. And there is no under-estimating how important a win last Wednesday was over Hamilton. It was hardly a classic, but we ground out a result and encouragingly kept a second successive clean sheet at two very difficult venues. I thought our centre-backs, Garry Kenneth and Andy Webster, were magnificent and in Dusan Pernis we have a new keeper who oozes confidence. I also thought we created some great chances and they probably should have made it a bit easier for me on the sidelines by converting a few more of them, rather than having to rely on Goodies well struck late winner It now sets us up for a cracker this afternoon against Hibs with the opportunity of leap-frogging them into third place. But that is only if we win and against John Hughes' attack-minded side that will be far from easy. but whatever the outcome, it should be a cracking contest for the fans of both sides.