United stars blameless for Covid blow, says Harkes

IAN HARKES insists the nine Dundee United players absent and isolating from the weekend defeat to Livingston are blameless of any Covid-19 crimes. The news of manager Micky Mellon and his staff testing positive was followed by the blow of a squad decimation based on close-contact rules. And although their starting line-up was largely unaffected, the defeat was a second blow in 48 hours after being dumped down into sixth place in the table without a ball being kicked by Motherwell’s six-point boost. ‘We just stuck to the protocols,’ said the American midfielder. ‘Unfortunately, some boys were told they couldn’t train, but most of us trained as normal. ‘We know that, as footballers, we have an extra spotlight on us to stick to the rules. And we’ve been excellent and maybe blameless — but these things still happen. ‘It was strange to see the way the league dealt with the other cases, but we just have to deal with that. That puts them (Motherwell) in a good position with those points, so it will be a tough one. ‘You never know how those games were going to go. Those are strong results (the 3-0s) to put out.’ Stand-in boss Thomas Courts, whose day job is with United’s academy, revealed after the game that Mellon had still been controlling his team remotely, making tactical switches and subs through a direct line to the dugout. However, Harkes was adamant that was no excuse for the loss. ‘It was a seamless transition and we all knew the message from the gaffer,’ he said. ‘Even before the game, on Zoom we had to do different things to get the information across. ‘There is a really tough run of games through December and January, though, so we have to get back on track and hopefully we bounce back.’