Breath of fresh Aird lifts United
Dundee united’s revolution under Robbie neilson continued last night as they stormed into second place thanks to victory in this six-goal thriller.
neilson’s promotion hopefuls are now breathing down the necks of Championship pacesetters Ayr united after closing the gap at the top to just three points having stretched their unbeaten run to six games.
they did it the hard way by coming from behind to cancel out Alan trouten’s early penalty, but still leapfrogged rivals Ross County and can look forward to their televised top-of-the-table showdown with Ayr on tayside at the end of this month.
trouten gave Jim Goodwin’s visitors a 17th-minute lead but nicky Clark levelled two minutes later before Pavol safranko headed the hosts in front and Fraser Aird put them 3-1 ahead in 35 minutes.
iain Flannigan’s swerving freekick three minutes later gave the plucky Wasps hope of a comeback but neilson’s rejuvenated side held out, with substitute Craig Curran sealing matters six minutes from the end to add further fuel to their recent revival.
neilson said afterwards: ‘i thought the lads answered a lot of questions tonight. We went a goal down and previously we could have crumbled but we came back to 2-1, which was great.
‘We went 3-1 ahead, then lost a goal quickly and you are thinking it could be squeaky bum time. But we came out (in the second half), stood strong and got the goal that killed the game.
‘throughout the course of a league season there are going to be games like that.
‘the most important thing is that you win. You are not going to play at your top level every week and this was one of those games where we didn’t but we still got three points.’
it was the visitors who took a shock early lead.
united defender Paul Watson was guilty of ball-watching as dario Zanatta ghosted in behind him in what was their first foray up the park.
Referee steven Kirkland pointed straight to the spot after Watson took the legs from his Canadian opponent.
up stepped trouten with a perfect penalty to send Benjamin siegrist the wrong way.
But Alloa’s lead was short-lived. no sooner had the underdogs gone ahead than united were level.
Aird did the donkey work as he took a touch and cut the ball back for Clark, who was well placed to bundle home.
And united wasted no time in then storming ahead.
Aird’s corner caused panic in the visitors’ defence and on-loan safranko rose unchallenged to bullet home a textbook header.
Aird was unplayable by now and he increased his side’s lead in 35 minutes, sweeping his penalty high into the net after steven Hetherington had pulled down Paul McMullan.
Alloa threw themselves a lifeline seven minutes before the break.
Flannigan curled an unstoppable 22-yard free-kick over the wall and into siegrist’s net, after Rachid Bouhenna had impeded Zanatta.
united came out all guns blazing after the break looking to kill the contest.
they almost did so in 55 minutes. Aird’s fine cross was met by Clark but neil Parry fisted away his goal-bound header.
it seemed like only a matter of time before the hosts restored their two-goal advantage as Alloa remained camped inside their own half.
Yet in 69 minutes, they had a golden opportunity to equalise.
Zanatta sprung the home team’s offside trap and raced clean through on siegrist.
But, just as he was about to pull the trigger, William edjenguele bravely thwarted him with a superb sliding challenge.
subsitute Curran then made an instant impact by latching on to sam stanton’s pass to slide home the killer fourth goal for united.