DESTINY CALLING
Shankland fated to lead United back to elite, says McMullan
PAUL McMULLAn believes Lawrence Shankland was destined to rescue Dundee United — and has similar faith in him hoisting them back to the Premiership.
The striker came to the aid of Robbie neilson’s side with a double in the dying minutes to deny an impressive Arbroath team, while maintaining their place at the top of the Championship on goal difference above rivals Ayr United.
The 24-year-old Shankland finished in style from substitute McMullan’s 88th-minute pass to equalise, before his 92nd-minute header from Liam Smith’s cross won the points after Luke Donnelly had given the part-time visitors a 52nd-minute lead. Former Ayr forward Shankland has netted 12 goals in 11 games since joining United in the summer, and McMullan had total confidence he would throw the Taysiders a lifeline in the dying minutes.
The winger said: ‘I expected him to score. To be honest, as soon as I saw he had controlled it I thought it was in and I was already thinking about how we can go and get a winner.
‘He just doesn’t usually miss from there so I was pretty confident it was going to be a goal. He has scored 12 already and we are not even in October. Hopefully, he can keep it going all season. That’s why the club brought him here.
‘He is what they felt we needed as he is right up there with the best strikers I’ve played with.
‘He has all the finishes, it can be left foot, right foot or the head — it doesn’t matter.
‘Thankfully, he is here and didn’t go to a Premiership club or elsewhere. He is a natural scorer and someone who finishes off all your good work.
‘You can pass the ball around the park for 90 minutes all you want but if you don’t have someone to score then you don’t win games.’
Shankland showed just why the Tayside title hopefuls went the extra mile to lure him to Tannadice.
It is days like Saturday which could prove pivotal to United’s promotion push, and McMullan is convinced they have the necessary spirit to finally go all the way.
He said: ‘We knew it was going to be difficult, having played them a couple of weeks ago in the Challenge Cup and lost on penalties.
‘They scored here with one of their few shots on target, but thankfully, Lawrence did what he usually does and got us the win.
‘When we were away to Partick Thistle we had a poor first-half but came back to win that game so we knew we could do it.
‘It is hard to compare this team to ones from the past but this group does have a togetherness and a real never-say-die approach.’
Meanwhile, Arbroath’s James Murphy has pledged the Red Lichties will continue punching above their weight.
He said: ‘We’ve surprised people this year, but not ourselves. We deserve to be in this league and we have shown why.
‘Teams have been surprised by us as sometimes the newly-promoted side are expected to just roll over, but we won’t do that.’
DUNDEE UNITED (4-4-2): Siegrist 6; L Smith 6, Butcher 6, Reynolds 5, Robson 6; C Smith 5, (McMullan 52) Stanton 6, Harkes 6, Appere 5 (Sporle 62); Pawlett 5 (Chalmers 78) Shankland 8. Subs not used: Mehmet, King, Banks, Watson. Booked: Butcher, Robson, Stanton, Shankland. ARBROATH (4-5-1): Jamieson 6; Thomson 7, Little 7, O’Brien 7, Hamilton 7; McKenna 7, Gold 6 (Campbell 56) Whatley 6 (Virtannen 62), Murphy 6, Linn 8; Donnelly 7 (Doris 56). Subs not used: Gaston, Kader, Spence, Stirling. Booked: McKenna, Whatley, Murphy, Linn. Man of the match: Lawrence Shankland. Referee: Gavin Duncan. Attendance: 7,877.