Freeman savours his ‘best moment’
United scorer high on life after lows of Southampton
FOOTBALLERS are often prone to hyperbole but when Kieran Freeman described sweeping in Dundee United’s third goal against Hibernian as “probably the best moment of my life”, he had good reason.
The 21-year-old is establishing himself as a reliable and skilful option for the Tannadice side at right-back and his lung-bursting run to finish off a magnificent move with 16 minutes remaining at Easter Road epitomised what Tam Courts has brewing on Tayside.
Freeman spent three of his four years at Southampton injured and recovering from knee surgery, so he has tasted the lows of trying to carve out a living as a sportsman. On Saturday, the beautiful game delivered a welcome high.
“That was reflected in my celebration – I went a bit crazy,” confessed Freeman when it was put to him that he has had to wait for his opportunity. “I just love playing football and I want to be playing on this stage every week.
“When I was injured, the one bonus was I was running every day for about two years! If you are a full-back, the sports scientist makes you run more. I give my all, it’s my job at the end of the day and I love it.
“I had too much time to think about the shot, I squeezed it in and then ran away crazy. I should probably have milked it a bit more.
“With all those fans there it’s probably the best moment of my life. Just screaming and smiling at the fans and seeing the same on their faces was great. It makes the hard days worthwhile – not that I’d want to do that again.”
Freeman returned to United, his first club, in 2020 and benefited from a loan spell with Peterhead last season. The win against Hibs represented his fourth successive start and the youngster’s delight was mirrored in the faces of everyone decked in tangerine.
It was a performance of diligence, determination, organisation and talent that was richly rewarded with three points and third place in the table. Courts’ inexperience was questioned upon his appointment but he has implemented an approach that
is helping reconnect the team to supporters disgruntled by previous managers.
“When you come away from home and win 3-0, we would have taken that at the start of the day,’ said Freeman. “But everyone in the dressing room thinks we didn’t play near our best, which is good. It’s three points and it doesn’t matter how you get it.
“To go to Easter Road and get three points is a good statement and if we can finish this quarter with a few more wins then it will be excellent.
“The gaffer has a way of playing and game by game we are trying to implement that more. Everyone is grasping what he wants and I think that was evident off the ball today. We never looked in too much danger of conceding.
“We can’t control what happens externally. All of us just love playing football and winning games. We don’t need to set limits or anything. We are doing well. It’s about taking care of ourselves.”
Nicky Clark superbly curled in the opener for United just before the break and Ryan Edwards’ towering header six minutes after the interval floored a Hibs team desperately seeking a foothold in a game always looked to be slipping away from them. When slick passing from Clark, Peter Pawlett and Ilmari Niskanen sliced through in the 74th minute Freeman was the beneficiary.
Jack Ross’ assessment of Hibs’ “lazy, slow and selfish” performance was scathing and winger Jamie Murphy has confessed they need a swift response as they eye a crucial meeting with an Aberdeen team deep in crisis.
“Hopefully, this is the low point for us this season,” he said after the capital side slipped to fifth in the table. “We need to learn from it and try and get better and go into next week at Aberdeen full of confidence.
“The manager has mentioned a few times that we hadn’t been out of the top four for a long time. We’re down to fifth. It’s disappointing because we don’t want to be down there. We have set standards to be top four, top three and that’s what we are looking at.
“Maybe teams before us have dropped out and thought it was all right. We don’t want to be like that. We want to be pushing for third every season. We will fix it.”