Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
We matched Jags for energy: Robbie
DUNDEE United manager Robbie Neilson hailed his players for coming th rough a tough test against Partick Thistle last night.
United saw off the Jags 1-0 at Tannadice to maintain their three-point lead at the top of the Championship thanks to a second-half Lawrence Shankland strike.
“It was a tough game and credit to Partick, I thought they came and made it very difficult for us but that’s the nature of this league,” Robbie said.
“Teams come to Tannadice and always lift their game. They get that extra 10 or 20% energywise and we just have to match it and find a way to win. We managed to do that last night.
“Credit to the players because it was a very tough and physical, aggressive game.”
Following the club’s AGM yesterday, which revealed a £3.7 million loss for the year, Robbie insists he is not concerned by the figures as they push for promotion.
He added: “We knew this was coming. The chairman is very relaxed about it because he knew when he took over the club it was really in trouble.
“You have to invest money to get to the levels we want to get to. We’ve invested heavily in the academy to get elite status, which is phenomenal for this club. It gives us that platform, not just to develop the players but to bring players through and get them in the first team.
“This place has had a phenomenal history of bringing players through and we have to continue to do that.
“We’ve had to invest in infrastructure and, not only the first team, but the reserve team as well.
“We’ve brought in 14 or 15 16-year-olds this year because we believe that’s the way forward for us.
“We knew the statements were coming out and the reaction we were going to get because everyone looks at the big number. They don’t look at it broken down and look at ‘this is developing this’ and ‘this is a long-term strategy’.
“The plan in place that the chairman and Tony Asghar have here is first class but you have to build, you can’t just expect to come in and keep running the way we were.
“The club is going forward and you have to build on the foundations. That’s what the vast majority of the funds have gone to.”