Alexander delight as Cole cancels out United strikes
THIS entertaining encounter at Tannadice was the proverbial game of two halves in a match that essentially had little but professional pride at stake.
As the dust settled all remained the same albeit that both managers might have had some of their assessments of this season confirmed.
Dundee United had enough chances, including a missed penalty in the first half, to put the game beyond the reach of Motherwell by the time the interval came calling. It was a much more cohesive display from the visitors in the second period as goals from Christopher Long and an injury time Devante Cole effort cancelled out Shankland and teenage debutante Archie Meekison’s first-half goals.
There was spirit about the manner in which Motherwell roused themselves, and not for the first time in recent weeks. Graham Alexander’s side have lost just once in their last 11 games across 90 minutes and twice in the past month they have come back from a two-goal deficit to take a point.
All was as it was before the game by the time it had concluded but inevitably Alexander was the happier of the two managers.
“The energy in the team is excellent,” he said. “You could see how fresh we were at the end to try and get that winner and it has paid dividends the way the lads have trained. We have had some good results and we want to finish on a high against Ross County this weekend. You don’t come from 2-0 down twice in the space of a month without good character and bit of spirit about you.
“The result wasn’t going our way but it was an open game and both teams were trying to attack in numbers. They were more clinical than us but we had as many chances as they had to score.
“I just told the players at halftime that we could win it and they had to believe they would take the opportunities – they just had to take their chances when they came. It was good to get the goal back early on
in the second-half because it gave them the belief we could get back into it. We kept on knocking and got our reward.”
Allan Campbell has already told the club he will be heading elsewhere this summer after talks to keep at Fir Park were unsuccessful this week. The midfielder last just six minutes of this game after he picked up a calf injury and it remains to be seen if he will play again for the club.
“It happened right in front of me; the pitch just seemed to give way underneath him,” said Alexander. “I don’t know what he has done because we were engrossed in the game but fingers crossed he is ok. It is not like him to come off in a game.”
Micky Mellon was inevitably irked at failing to take the points from a game in which his side had a firm grip on but was enthused by the display of Meekison. The youngster took his chance on his senior debut for the club with Mellon keen to continue the club’s long reputation of developing young players.
“The future of this club is trying to organically develop our young players into winning players,” he said. “Archie is a terrific little player who has trained with us most of the season.
““It was about giving him an opportunity and I loved his enthusiasm. It was infectious.
“It was a positive night but disappointing we didn’t close it out.”