Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
United will get better promises gaffer Ray
FRUSTRATED Ray McKinnon has defiantly pledged his off-form Dundee United will get better — and soon.
The Tangerines gaffer was as disappointed as any fan as Saturday saw his team struggle to take a home point off lowly Dumbarton.
It took a spectacular 87th-minute free-kick from substitute James Keatings to salvage the draw for a game few could argue the Sons would have been worthy winners of had they been able to hold out.
Trailing at the break, United were booed off by their own fans and Ray had no complaints about that.
But he knows the gap to the top of the Championship is just two points and he’s promised performances and results will get better quickly.
“Of course the fans are frustrated, I’m frustrated. That’s down to the fact we are not firing right at this minute,” he said.
“But we will start firing in the next few weeks and that team will come good. They will get better, the players will get better.”
And he reminded Arabs the team started slowly last term but did hit the top of the table at Christmas.
“Where are we off the top of the league — two points?
“We were like this at the start of last season when we were nine points off the top of the league at one stage, after five or six games.
“We brought in 14 new players for the start of the season, so it was another big turnaround.”
Ray didn’t hide his anger over Saturday’s display, particularly in the first half.
“It’s frustrating. An individual error in the first-half has given us not a mountain to climb but gave them something to hang on to.
“We weren’t at it in the first half and didn’t look like causing them any problems. We didn’t get any runners in behind, we wanted to go and play pretty football.
“So I was disappointed with the boys in the first half.
“We changed it and had a better response from the players in the second half.
“I’m still not saying we were bang at it in the second half, we were not as good as we can be.
“It was disappointing that it took over 80 minutes to get an equaliser at home against Dumbarton.
“There were some good performances. Fyvie was outstanding, Briels come in and worked hard after being out for so long.
“There were lots of performances there they really have to improve on or they’ll find themselves out of the team.”