Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
McDonald wants Utd to add steel
Veteran striker aims to put things right at Pars
SCOTT McDonald agrees that, when things are going Dundee United’s way, they are the best footballing side in the Championship.
But when something goes wrong, they can have a disaster like last week’s 6-1 thrashing at Falkirk.
And the Australian striker knows a solution to that problem must be found quickly if the Tangerines are to live up to their pre-season billing as promotion favourites.
Good news for Arabs still hurting from the events at the Falkirk Stadium is he believes that can and will happen.
“I know it’s doom and gloom at the moment but I tell you what, and it’s not going to give any comfort to supporters me saying this, I’d rather have that when I’m chasing a title than staring down the barrel of relegation, so it’s not all bad,” he said.
“We have to get over this, we have to put the wrongs right.
“The manager’s had his assessment, everyone’s heard and it’s not just in the papers, we heard it i n the changing-room.
“People want to talk about a scathing assessment but everyone is on the same page and we are all together.
“We are all enjoying working under the manager and we know we let him down and, more than anyone, we let our supporters down.
“It was a real embarrassment for them and for us as players. We felt that, we felt the embarrassment after the game, there is no question.”
For McDonald, the point has come where that defeat must be pushed into the past and the focus returns to winning promotion.
“We need to put things right and we can only do that by doing the right things against Dunfermline. We have to get the result and putting on a performance very similar to when we went there the last time.
“And the thing I have confidence in is that, every time we’ve had adversity this year, we’ve managed to bounce back from losses. Hopefully, it will be the same, we can bounce back and start moving forward again.”
McDonald knows part of that process has to be finding a way to win when things don’t go exactly to plan, something United have been unable to do in the recent losses to the Bairns and league leaders St Mirren.
“I think the style of football we play is very good but we have to be cuter away from home. We have to have more steel and grind out results.
“This Championship is about grinding out results at times and, as much as you can say we are the best footballing team, St Mirren have got a know-how right now to be able to churn out result after result.
“We have to find that and we have to keep the pressure on them. We have to keep things tight, keep believing, keep doing the things we always do and, if there’s a little adversity in the game, cope.
“We’ve not done that and I’m not saying something that hasn’t been there for everyone to see, so we have to do that. We need to show a little bit more, keep with the game plan and keep our heads.
“As individuals and a team we need to be brave enough to stand up and do the right things.”
McDonald admits he’s been impressed by signings Craig Slater, Brandon Mason and Emil Lyng. He’s taken time to assure them last Saturday was neither typical of United nor their fault.
“The new boys have looked great and I just feel really bad for them. You don’t want to bring them in to that. That’s their first game and they will be feeling terrible.
“I’ve had quiet words with them and said it’s not like this every week and told them they’re not to blame.”