A MOMENT TO SAVOUR FOR SCOTT
Fraser thrilled to settle ‘horrible’ tie
SCOTT FRASER di dn’ t mince hi s words. Indeed, the forthright matchwinner summed up the preceding 90 minutes as both ‘ minging’ and ‘horrible’.
His insight was as accurate as the sublime finish he conjured up in the 84th minute to ensure Dundee United emerged victorious and will be in tonight’s Scottish Cup quarter-final draw at Hampden.
Celtic legend Lubomir Moravcik will help pull names from the hat and the Slovakian would have been proud of the way the 20-year- old despatched his goal.
On as a substitute for Ryan Dow just 10 minutes earlier, Fraser collected a fine reverse pass from Blair Spittal in the penalty box and curled a l ovely l ow shot past Thistle goalkeeper Tomas Cerny.
That moment lit up what had been a turgid affair. Both keepers went untested and the game became bogged down too often in the middle of the park.
Outwith the goal, however, Fraser didn’t try to dress i t up i nto anything that it wasn’t.
‘It was a great pass and you come to expect it from Blair because he has been on a good run of form,’ said Fraser.
‘It’s a run we have been practising in training. Rather than me get the ball and try to pass, he wants me to get on the end of passes, too, and thankfully he saw my run and I’ve put it in the net.
‘But it was a horrible game. At half-time, we spoke about it and the gaffer said to us sometimes you get games like that which are minging to watch. Thankfully, we managed to get the goal and we’re in the next round.
‘I was dying to get on. I was watching it, saw room on the pitch where I thought I could exploit and I was just trying to get in the gaffer’s eyeline when he was making the subs to make sure he saw me. Thankfully, he put me on.
‘It was a great feeling to get on and win the match. It wasn’t so good being on the bench but, after the way we played in the last game, it was understandable the gaffer didn’t make any changes. He just threw me on and I managed to get the goal.’
This win sealed United’s first back- to- back victories of the season after the 5-1 thrashing of Kilmarnock l ast month. They remain rooted at the bottom of the Premiership table and are unlikely to escape the drop but they may well be heading i n the right direction to make a fight of it in the coming weeks.
Fraser insisted the players are up for a scrap.
‘We’ve just spoken about that and it’s massive,’ he said. ‘OK, this wasn’t in the league, but it’s another win and we’ll go to Hamilton next week and look to make it three on the bounce.
‘It doesn’t matter if we play good football at this stage of the season, it was just about grinding out results. A few weeks ago, we would have l ost that game but we managed to nick it.
‘I’m sure if you offered us a Cup run or to stay in the league, then everyone knows what we choose. This was a chance of winning another game and raising our confidence even higher. Now we’ll look for the draw and, hopefully, get a home tie.’
United manager Mixu Paatelainen — who has signed former Inverness Caley Thistle striker Edward Ofere — was delighted with Fraser’s winner.
‘Scott deserved that goal,’ said the Finn. ‘He deserves credit. We are delighted we won. The players have been confident and brave.’
Partick boss Alan Archibald insisted he would have preferred to have had the distraction of the Cup still to play for.
‘It was a sore one to lose to a late goal,’ he admitted. ‘I don’t think either side deserved to win.’
Stuart Bannigan caught the eye as Thistle pushed for an equaliser but didn’t test Eiji Kawashima.
Part of the reason for that was the solid contributions made by John Rankin and Paul Paton. Both worked well together in midfield and, on occasion, Rankin also provided a goal threat.
A good win for the Tannadice outfit but they are long way off equalling the achievement of Peter Houston’s United team when they won the Scottish Cup in 2010.