Dundee Utd 4
Motherwell 0
League (SPL)

Manager's Programme Notes

To say the least, the last two results and performances have been completely contrasting, going from the great win against Kilmamock to the disappointment of last Sunday's defeat at Celtic Park. For the first 70 minutes of that last home game against Killie, it was our best performance of the season. We started brilliantly, and even when we went down to ten men to allow Goodie to have stitches inserted, we were still on top. The first three goals - all headers - were great, and that's unusual for us when Jon Daly isn't around. No matter how much you cajole players, they are always going to get sloppy in the last 20 minutes when you are four up, but I'll take that any time. But it was a great way for us to bounce back after the Rangers defeat and I take pride in the fact that the players have always reacted to disappointment in the past, so I had a lot of faith in them. Unfortunately, last Sunday must rate as one of our worst defensive performances of the season with Celtic getting their goals too easily. Yet, I thought I fielded our most experienced back four, but have to concede, it didn't look that way. If you are going to give goals away like that then a good team like Celtic are going to punish you and that's what they did. We were two down before we started to believe in ourselves. We passed the ball for fun against Kilmarnock the previous week but lacked belief at Parkhead. We were nowhere near the standard we set ourselves. After that, as the boys have done in the past, I'll be looking for them to bounce back this afternoon as we try to put fourth place to bed this afternoon. But we know it won't be easy against a Motherwell side that many see as our bogey team this season, which is true, but only at Fir Park!

I must point out that we had a good result and performance against them here just after Stuart McCall had taken over when we beat them here 2-0 in January. But I have nothing but admiration for what he has achieved in the short time he has been there alongside Kenny Black. And whilst I am obviously disappointed that we lost out to them in the Scottish Cup, I am delighted that they have made it through to the final. And I wish them all the best and would like to see them go on and win it - so long as it doesn't cost us a European slot! They arc a good side and if we are going to win this afternoon, we'll have to be at our very best because we know that the Motherwell players have cup final places up for grabs. You tend to find that players who may be on the fringe of things and get a run will be out to impress and psychologically get that wee lift as they try to impress the manager, so we know it is going to be a tough fixture.