Utd need warriors who’ll fight to go up

ThaT the axe appears to be falling on most of the Dundee United squad can come as no surprise.

For a second season running they’ve not been able to get out of the Championship.

For a club the size of United there is only one word to describe that – failure.

And, as a consequence, the players who’ve been told their services are no longer required have to accept it’s time to move on.

Disappointing as it was, Friday night’s exit from the play-offs at the hands of Livingston didn’t come as a surprise.

For the vast majority of the season, United simply have not looked good enough to get promotion.

Yes, in terms of ability, they have had better players than automatically promoted St Mirren and Livi, who finished second.

But what, for me, has been lacking in many members of the squad has been the attitude and drive of the players at the top two clubs.

That was illustrated in the last 10 minutes of Friday’s semi-final second leg.

Watching it you could not really tell that United’s whole season rested on getting a goal.

There just was not enough urgency about their play and I saw two or three balls played into the home box that were cleared without even a United challenge.

Going back as far as my coaching days at Montrose, I’ve always said that, in the lower leagues, if you have a group of players who are completely committed and willing to run about for 90 minutes every week, you will always have a chance of doing something.

The Buddies and, even more so, Livi are an example of that.

That’s not being disrespectful to those players’ ability, it’s recognising that getting out of the second tier is a battle and you have to be prepared to give 100% from start to finish.

As they look to rebuild for next season, that is what United have to bear in mind.

Of course they want to sign talented players who can play decent football.

But even more important is getting guys who will be willing to run through a brick wall for their team.

And what they need are players and a system that means, even if the team doesn’t play well on a given day, they can still grind out the victories they’re going to need.

Dundee United players were left to ponder what might have been following their play-off exit at Livingston.