PETER PROVES HE’S WORTH IT

FORFAR...0 DUNDEE UTD...1

CLINICAL Pawlett rattles in to snatch the tie for the Tangerines

MICKY MELLON is confident Scottish Cup hero Peter Pawlett will knock back St Johnstone and stay at Tannadice.

The midfielder, 30, has been offered a pre-contract from Saints and is also considering an extension from United.

Pawlett showed his worth as he scored the only goal of the game at Forfar last night to put United into the quarter finals, where they will play the winners of Aberdeen’s clash with Livingston.

Mellon said: “Yeah, I’m confident he’ll stay. I’ve got a great relationship with all my players and Peter.

“It’s probably out of my remit a little bit, talking about that kind of thing. But certainly he’s a player we enjoy working with and I think Peter enjoys being here as well. I believe that will continue.”

This cup tie was a tough 90 minutes but Mellon knows it was all about getting over the line.

He said: “We came to do a professional job and make sure we got through to the next round.

“I could stand here and say we could do this better and that better but the important thing was making sure we got the result and booked a place in the quarter-finals.”

Forfar had six players unavailable through a mix of suspension and five others being cup-tied.

That was on top of a rocky few weeks for the League One side who had seen their manager Stuart Malcolm resign and perilously sat seven points away from safety.

There was drama before a ball was kicked with United No.1 Benjamin Siegrist injured in the warm-up and replaced by Deniz Mehmet, with coach Neil Alexander, 43, taking a spot on the bench.

The home side started brightly with Bernard Coll curling a free-kick wide.

United’s first effort saw Adrian Sporle shoot but Gary Irvine diverted wide.

Pawlett’s corner found the head of Lawrence Shankland but it was easily gathered on the line by Marc McCallum.

A well-worked attack from United saw Liam Smith throw in an inviting cross for Nicky Clark to get his head on but keeper McCallum got down low to block and gather.

Clark curled a free-kick off the left post in the final action of the half.

United knew they had to show more urgency after the break and did.

The opener finally arrived in 56 minutes when Sporle’s corner fell to Liam Smith and he fed Pawlett, who drilled into the bottom right.

Interim Forfar playerboss Irvine said: “We did well against a good team. We just need to take that level of performance into the league.”