WIN OR TITLE DREAM DIES
BIG-MATCH PREVIEWS DUNDEE UTD v ROSS COUNTY BY EUAN McARTHUR TEAMSHEET
NICKY CLARK says tonight’s clash with leaders Ross County is a must win for Dundee United.
Robbie Neilson’s Tangerines trail the Staggies by 11 points at the top of the Championship. And the striker admits nothing less than maximum points will do in their quest for long-awaited automatic promotion.
Clark said: “We’ve made it really hard for ourselves this year. Ross County have done well and all credit to them.
“But this is a must win and we have to try to close the gap as much as we can – although we can’t just go gung-ho and leave ourselves open at the back early on. DUNDEE UNITED will be missing striker Pavol Safranko who has been called up by Slovakia for this week’s Euro qualifiers against Hungary and Wales.
Osman Sow is out injured but Peter Pawlett is back from suspension.
Ross County have Tom Grivosti banned with Callum Morris, Liam Fontaine and Billy Mckay out injured. Ross Draper and Ross Stewart are set to return from knocks.
“We need to play the game properly. If we play the way we can play with the lads we have in our squad then we should be fine.
“But County also have a really good squad so we have to be prepared for what they’re going to throw at us. “We do need to win the game so if it gets to the stage where we need to go for it then we have to do that.” United’s last home match ended in a Scottish Cup lasteight loss to Inverness and Clark admits they owe their fans big time. He said: “The supporters deserve better than what we’ve shown in the last few weeks.
“We had an unbelievable crowd in for the Inverness game and we let them down.
“The boys were all sick afterwards. We didn’t perform at all.
“Again, at Thistle last week was very disappointing for us. We have something to prove to the fans and we need to have a really good reaction.”
Staggies striker Brian Graham knows United see tonight’s game as potentially their last throw of the dice in the title race.
The Dingwall club lost 1-0 at home to United in mid-November but were 5-1 winners on their last trip to Tannadice.
Graham, who has nine goals having made 12 starts this season, said: “We’ve opened up a good gap and Dundee United will probably see this as a must-win game.
“We go there with a game plan and it’s a huge opportunity – a chance to go 14 points clear with eight games to go.
“I’m sure it will be a cracking game in front of hopefully a big crowd – one to relish.
“We’ve done our homework and we know what’s expected of us, what we’re up against.
“We didn’t really expect to create the kind of gap we now have but with the run we’re on we’ve been picking up results even when sometimes not playing particularly well.
“It’s a two-horse race at the moment but we have a great chance to increase the lead at Dundee United.”