Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Win over Ayr is good but derby is the big game insists Robbie
DESPITE the satisfaction of a win that brought up Dundee United’s ninth on the bounce, Robbie Neilson says he’s already forgotten about the 4-0 success over Ayr as he puts all his focus on Friday’s derby.
In fact, the Tannadice gaffer says he had moved on from the victory over the Honest Men by the time he’d finished his post-match media duties at the weekend.
He said: “Saturday is done and dusted now, we’re not interested in the Ayr game anymore. “I forgot about it half-an-hour after the game. “The derby is the big game of the season.
“We have had two good results against Dundee already so we want another one.
“After this derby, we don’t have another one for about four months so we need to make sure we put a marker down and give the bragging rights to our fans.
“We are sitting in a very good position but we have to keep going and get a result this Friday night.
“Normally, in cities like Dundee you get judged on the derby fixtures so we will be ready for it.”
Despite that almost-immediate switch in focus, Robbie admits his side will have to start Friday night’s clash against Dundee far better than they did Saturday’s match.
Mark Kerr’s Honest Men were by far the better side in the opening half as United failed to put together any sort of meaningful attacks.
That changed, however, in the 42nd minute as Paul McMullan caught Ayr defender Steven Bell sleeping before setting up Sam Stanton’s opener.
And Robbie was pleased to see his side improve considerably in the second period as they cruised to a 4-0 victory thanks to a Lawrence Shankland penalty, where Ayr player-manager Kerr was sent off, a Nicky Clark strike and a late Ian Harkes long-ranger.
“The second half was where we want to be,” the Tangerines boss added.
“The first half we have to give credit to Ayr, they dominated most of the game and we would have been happy to get in at half-time at 0-0 – to come in 1-0 up was great.
“We picked their pocket but the second half we were far better.
“We were all disappointed at half-time. We weren’t making tackles or interecepting and I thought second half Calum Butcher was the one who led the game for us.
“He was the one who turned it by making a couple of tackles.”
Stanton’s opener was his second in two matches after netting the winner at Arbroath and his third in five games.
“Sam has been doing great,” Robbie added. “We’ve been playing him in different positions. We played him off the left to begin with and then moved him central, then onto the right. He’s very versatile.
“We’re asking him and Ian Harkes to get into the box a lot more, to create overloads, and thankfully the two of them got goals.”