Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Big Ben reads the riot act after flop
DUNDEE United goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist has called on every United player to make amends after letting down themselves, their team-mates and the Tangerines fans in the 1-0 defeat at Motherwell on Tuesday.
United crashed to defeat in terrible weather at Fir Park after turning in an uncharacteristically slack performance.
Around 800 travelling fans watched their side fail to impose themselves.
For Siegrist, that is unacceptable and he held his hands up in the aftermath.
“For once, I don’t really know what to say,” he admitted.
“We can’t even get to be disappointed. To be disappointed, you actually have to turn up.
“You are allowed to be disappointed when you are doing your best and it’s not going your way but we didn’t turn up.
“We were second-best all game and we have to regroup and get it right for the next game.
“It’s not good enough. I don’t know how many players we used – 11, 12, 13? All of them weren’t good enough.
“Our fans expect us to play football but we couldn’t pass, we couldn’t go long and we couldn’t go in behind.
“There were too many unforced errors and Motherwell capitalised on that with the goal.”
Tony Watt’s first-half strike was enough to kill-off United on a rainy night in Lanarkshire.
With Celtic due at Tannadice on Sunday, Siegrist feels the Tangerines owe their fans a far livelier display.
He said: “We have to make amends for the individual performance, the team performance and our mentality.
“The next game is very important.
“The fans came in numbers to Motherwell and didn’t see a United team turning up for them.
“They should be disappointed, but I know they will be there again on Sunday.
“We’re going to need them but they didn’t see a team that came off the bus at Fir Park.”
He added: “You have to turn up on the day and make the most of the opportunities. That’s something we definitely didn’t do against Motherwell.
“There’s only one way forward. That’s to regroup this week and look forward to the next game against Celtic.
“We need to puff our chest out and give it our best shot.
“After tough defeats it hurts more so you tend to learn a bit more.
“As long as you are winning it cures a lot of things, but little details and untidiness had crept in over the last couple of games.
“We need to learn from that. We need to do better.”