Goalie Deniz hoping for a regular run

AFTER a long and, at times, frustrating wait, goalkeeper Deniz Mehmet finally made his Dundee United league debut on Tuesday.

Any delight at that was obviously severely diluted by a demoralising 3-2 home defeat at the hands of Queen of the South and even the fact manager Csaba Laszlo made a point of exonerating him from any blame did not ease his pain.

The 25-year-old Londoner, however, remains eager to play his part in what has become an increasingly desperate struggle to turn the Tangerines’ season around.

“It’s not particularly any consolation, there was nothing I could do about the goals we conceded on Tuesday. I’m gutted, to be honest, that, having waited so long, I started my season with a result like that,” said the 25-year-old.

“You get a chance and to start with a 3-2 loss, especially after getting back in the game from being two goals down in the first half completely against the run of play, is really difficult.

“But what we have to do now is pick ourselves up and make sure we are ready to go again against Dunfermline.

“We need to get a run of games going and get our confidence back up again, believe in ourselves and get going again. We need to get as many points as we can between now and the end of the regular season and see how high we can finish.

“Obviously, St Mirren are getting wins while we are not doing ourselves any favours but it will just come down to getting two or three wins and we can get ourselves back up and take things from there.”

The man who prefers to be known simply as Deniz, does believe United have had way more than their share of unlucky breaks this season but knows where the responsibility for changing the luck lies.

And after going behind in each of the last six games, starting games better is an obvious priority.

“Things don’t seem to be going our way at the moment but it is only us who can change it. It’s up to us as players to turn things around.