Rovers eye move to tempt United manager Mellon back to England

DUNDEE UNITED manager Micky Mellon has emerged as a shock contender to take charge of English League One side Doncaster Rovers. The 49-year-old has comfortably kept promoted United up this term and only just missed out on a top-six finish in their first season back in the Premiership. Mellon arrived in the summer at Tannadice for his first spell managing in Scotland after 14 years as a boss down south where he played during his career, eventually managing Fleetwood Town, Barnsley and Shrewsbury Town before he won back-to-back promotions with Tranmere Rovers, taking them into English League One. And his work at Tannadice has prompted the Doncaster board to include Mellon in their shortlist for a new manager. United put Hamilton to the sword on Saturday thanks to a goal from Marc McNulty, with the Tannadice club in seventh place in the league and with a more-than-winnable Scottish Cup tie with Forfar to come on Friday night. United’s winning goal came about after rookie Accies goalkeeper Kyle Gourlay, starting in place of the injured Ryan Fulton, scuffed an attempted clearance straight to Jeandro Fuchs. The Cameroonian released McNulty with his first touch and the Scotland striker produced a composed finish. For McNulty, scoring only his third goal of the campaign was something of a relief. ‘It’s been hard for me to get goals this season,’ said the 28-year-old. ‘Being used up front makes a difference, of course. I don’t want to seem as though I’m moaning every week about being played out of position, but it was typical that when I was at the top end here I managed to score. ‘I need to choose my words carefully but it’s good for me to be in the centre of the pitch. ‘The goal was exactly the kind of gift you want as a striker — to prey on a bad pass, as Jeandro did when he slipped me in. I was delighted to get the goal. ‘One of the reasons I joined the club was that Lawrence Shankland had done so well. The manager had said we would work together but we’ve changed shape so often that we haven’t really worked together much at all. ‘I think you could see, in spells, that we linked up pretty well. Neither of us had the best of games but there’s definitely something there — I’m sure that the more we play together the better we’ll become.’ Accies, meanwhile, have won only two of their 17 home games in the Premiership this season, so the fact that their next fixture comes when derby rivals Motherwell visit a week on Wednesday should be a cause for concern for the top tier’s bottom club. With four games remaining, the only consolation for them is that they have not been cut adrift at the bottom. As things stand, Kilmarnock are two points above them in the play-off position, while Ross County are only one further ahead in the sanctuary of tenth place and they meet them in the last two rounds of fixtures. ‘A lot of us have been in this position before and there’s no doubt it pulls us closer together,’ said full-back Scott McMann. ‘We know what it takes to survive — a stroke of luck, one break of the ball, anything that gets you back on the right road. ‘We don’t feel much is going for us, but hopefully we get a big decision our way soon. It’s still in our hands, that’s the good thing. We just do our thing. If that keeps us up, we’ll have done the job.’ The problem is that Accies have not been winning when playing well — and one wonders if they will find the cutting edge they have been missing, after racking up 44 efforts on goal in their last two games without once finding the net. For long periods, Hamilton dominated United, pushing them on to the back foot and keeping them there but the elusive goal refused to come. ‘It’s hard to believe we lost that game given how much we put into it. Maybe one day we’ll get the slice of luck we deserve,’ said McMann. ‘I felt we could have had a penalty right at the end. I felt a nudge in the back and went down but we don’t seem to be getting them these days. ‘We’re down to the bare bones with injuries, which always seems to be the Hamilton way. ‘It’s always backs to the wall but we have enough about us to get ourselves out of trouble, so we won’t get too down. ‘We’ve had so many shots at goal, the same as last week, so we just need to start taking some of them.’

HAMILTON ACCIES (3-2-4-1): Gourlay 5; Hamilton 6, A Martin 7, Easton 7 (C Smith 79); Odoffin 6, Hughes 6; Hodson 5, Callachan 7, Munro 6, McMann 7; Anderson 6. Subs not used: Scully, Stirling, Stanger, Moyo, Redfern. Booked: Martin. DUNDEE UNITED (4-1-3-2): Siegrist 6; L Smith 6, Edwards 5, Reynolds 6, Robson 5; Butcher 6; Fuchs 6 (Hoti 70), Harkes 6 (Pawlett 57), Sporle 5 (Clark 57); McNulty 6, Shankland 5 (Appere 84). Subs not used: Mehmet, Connolly, Chalmers, Bolton, K Smith. Booked: Robson, McNulty. Man of the match: Brian Easton. Referee: Bobby Madden.