Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
St Mirren showing United how to do it
It’s getting to the point where you just don’t know what to say about Dundee United any more.
Tonight, though, will be the ultimate humiliation for the Tangerines if St Mirren come to Tannadice and win the title.
And you can’t really see anything but the Buddies getting the result they need.
Dundee United’s form over the past 10 games has been ridiculous — on that form table they are second bottom.
Just nine points from a possible 30 is atrocious.
They have huge problems and I fear for them tonight and further ahead.
It’s a really difficult situation and the board have to make a clear decision.
Maybe they’ve already made it and think Csaba Laszlo is the man to take them forward beyond this season. If that’s the case, then they have to stick to their guns.
If they’re worried about not making the play-offs then making a change will be in their heads.
Whichever way they go, for me, it’s a dodgy decision.
At the end of the day, the players have to be taking full responsibility.
If they’ve not got the heart to go to Dumbarton — a team they’d just beaten at home a few days before — and get a result, then having Jose Mourinho in the dugout would still have the same outcome.
To lose two goals in the second half from free headers shows they’re just not doing the basics.
That’s exactly what you have to do when things aren’t going right.
Defend well, do your jobs, keep your shape and then things will start to go right at the other end of the park.
Just now it seems like United can score goals but just can’t stop conceding them.
They are going to have to dig deep tonight and get a performance from somewhere if they are going to stop St Mirren winning the title.
The Buddies are exactly the sort of side United should be looking at and taking a leaf out of their book.
I don’t see a lot of difference in the quality of their players and the Tangerines.
What they have got, though, is the team ethic and work rate for each other that sees them through tricky moments.
Take Saturday’s 1-0 win at Brechin as a prime example. They didn’t play well but did enough — exactly the sort of game United would have messed up.