Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Utd get plenty from trip down to Shrewsbury
THE score may suggest otherwise and it is, and should always be, the case that any game that ends in defeat comes with some sense of disappointment.
However, Dundee United’s trip to Shrewsbury Town on Saturday for one final warm-up game before the Championship kicks off this weekend was deemed a worthwhile exercise – and rightly so.
Yes, the Tangerines did go down 2-1 to the physically powerful League One outfit at their impressive Montgomery Waters Meadow home.
And the starting line-up used by Robbie Neilson for this friendly will bear little resemblance to the one he uses when Inverness Caley Thistle visit Tannadice on Saturday.
At a push you would guess only three of the United men on the pitch at kick-off, Calum Butcher, Ian Harkes and Jamie Robson, will be in the side for that league opener.
If the manager felt he had to gamble to try to get three points this weekend, 17-year-old Scott Banks could be added to that list because he was, again, very impressive in attack.
But with the size, quality and experience of the squad at his disposal, Robbie Neilson does not have to do that – certainly not this early on – so young Banks will almost certainly be on the bench.
Either way, that the starting team against the Shrews was so different to the usual one, meant the main objective of taking on this friendly was achieved.
Since it was announced Neilson had said it would mainly be about getting minutes into legs for players who had not been involved for much of the Betfred Cup.
The likes of Cammy Smith, who played well, Freddy Frans and Deniz Mehmet got them and it means as many of the squad as possible are as close to full match fitness as they could be at this stage of the year.
As United used 20 players in all, by the end of Saturday, most of the men who will make up the eleven this weekend were on the pitch and that was another plus.
Not just because it was a shock result that led to their Betfred exit, but after last Tuesday’s