Utd’s triangle a platform for

DUNDEE United’s impressive defensive showing on the road at Queen of the South on Tuesday can be the blueprint for a successful late season run, according to Paul Quinn.

Since dropping down to the Championship in 2016, the Tangerines have struggled away from home.

In fact, Tuesday night’s 3-1 victory at Palmerston was only their ninth out of 31 attempts away from Tannadice, topping last season’s paltry tally of just four away wins.

Ahead of what will be a mammoth run-in to the end of the campaign where the going will get tough, Quinn is hoping they’ve come up with a defensive platform to get wins on the road.

He lined up in an unfamiliar position as a holding midfielder ahead of centreback pairing Mark Durnan and Tam Scobbie and, despite applying pressure late on, Queens never looked like breaking them down.

Quinn said: “I’ve played there before, not a lot, but it’s something we’ve spoken about over the last couple of months if the games are changing and we need different personnel.

“The manager is always big on saying he needs his squad. He doesn’t have any No 1 picks anywhere on the pitch so he looks at where he can have everybody involved to win a match.

“He asked me to do that sitting role and I felt it worked all right, especially with Tam and ‘ Vinnie’ behind me, speaking to me all the time, which makes it so much simpler.

“It’s new for me that job and it’s more about the team than the individual — it’s about helping others and I was in there to stop Queen of the South playing through, to help centre-backs, to help full-backs and it’s a fresh challenge for me.

“I enjoyed it and, thankfully, I was on the winning team.

“I think we were pretty strong with that triangle of centre-backs — me playing in front.

“There’s a lot we can improve on and I’m sure if we get back on the training pitch, focus on what we can do better, make the positives even better then, hopefully, it’s a system we can adapt to.

“We know we’re a footballing side, we know we’re a fluent side and there’s games we’ll try to play football and dominate. However, in games where we need to be a bit stiffer, it’s an option for us.”

With almost three weeks spent not playing before the trip to Dumfries, it was

Paul Quinn played in a “sitting role” at Palmerston for the Tangerines Dundee United’s rearguard of Paul Quinn (left), Tam Scobbie (right) and Mark