Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Utdshow
Tangerines now looking forward to the last eight draw of the Scottish Cup
THE fe e l go o d factor su r rou nd i ng D u ndee United increased further as they reach the quarterfi na ls of t he Scott ish C up w it h v ic tor y at Premiership strugglers St Mirren.
Their 2-1 success was almost the perfect mix of craft and graft and both provided encouragement in equal measure for what lies ahead in the rest of this campaign.
The Tangerines dominated the first half to an extent where, with them two up by the i nterval thanks to strikes from Pavol Safranko and Nicky Clark, it looked like they were going to run away with the tie.
That changed when midfielder Calum Butcher was red-carded with just under half-an-hour of the second half remaining and Robbie Neilson’s men were forced to fight a rearguard action for the remainder of the 90 minutes.
Although that period saw them ship a goal to a deflected Duckens Nazon shot, the way they ground out the win had to be pleasing.
Pleasing as beating a top-flight team in the cup was, no one at Tannadice is forgetting winning promotion is the be all and end all for this season.
With that in mind, if United play with the flair and imagination showed in the first 45 minutes, few at Championship level will have any hope of living with them.
And if there are games they don’t fire on all cylinders, the way they battled through when a man short has to provide optimism that this is now a team that is capable of winning ugly as well.
Indeed, it’s fair to say the mood now surrounding this team is as optimistic as it’s been since relegation in 2016. Rightly so, because Saturday showed that while time is still needed for the new-look line-up to gel and for some to build match fitness, they do look an impressive outfit.
On Saturday, but for the heroics of Vaclav Hladky in the home goal United would have three or four goals up by the interval.
The Czech pulled off fine stop after fine stop but, with little protection in front of him, it was no surprise as Safranko grabbed the opener in the 15th minute. Nor was anyone shocked when Clark added a second with a clever lob just before the interval.
If the home defending at those goals was poor, credit has to go to United for some fine attacking play in what was arguably their best performance of the season to date.
Once again, recent signings were to the fore. Peter Pawlett followed up his Man-of-the-Match debut against Morton a week earlier with another excellent afternoon’s work.
Ian Harkes, Cammy Smith and, prior to his early bath, Butcher all put in praiseworthy shifts in the middle of the park.
At the back, the new central defensive pairing of Mark Reynolds and Mark Connolly were solid, particularly as everything but the kitchen sink was thrown at their box in the final 10 minutes.
As the names on the scoresheet suggest, however, it was a team effort that secured the place in the last eight.