The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Tangerines set target by boss
DUNDEE UNITED 1 DUNFERMLINE 0: Mikkelsen nets hosts’ winner
Dundee United manager Ray McKinnon has challenged his players to win every match between now and the end of the season.
The Tangerines beat Dunfermline 1-0 at Tannadice last night thanks to Thomas Mikkelsen’s goal after 30 minutes.
They are now sitting in third spot in the Championship table, just one point behind second-placed Falkirk and one ahead of Morton, who were hammered by St Mirren.
There is no doubt United have the quality in their ranks to win those fixtures against Ayr United, St Mirren, Dumbarton and Morton. It’s now a case of getting the job done, though.
McKinnon said: “I have just told the players that we are more than capable of winning every game between now and the end of the season. “Let’s go and do it! “Nothing has changed for us – we are just trying to win every game.”
“We want to finish as high up the league as we can and then address things at the end of the season,” added McKinnon.
“These were three big points for us – no doubt about it. We needed them and we got them.
“I think we deserved the win as well. We maybe made it more difficult for ourselves than we needed to.
“If we could have taken our chances, it wouldn’t have been so frantic and nervous in the last 10 minutes.
“I could see some good signs, though. For example, the back four are starting to gel again.
“We had key players like William Edjenguele, Willo Flood and Tony Andreu showing a spark.
“If they can all get back to form – and I think they are – for the final part of the season then I would be delighted.
“It was satisfying that we kept a clean sheet because we lost a late goal to Falkirk on Saturday and I would be hurting if we did the same again.
“Dunfermline threw caution to the wind in the closing stages and I could sense a nervousness in our players as they dropped off the game. That happens but we held firm.”
Pars manager Allan Johnston bemoaned the pivotal moment when his striker Michael Moffat missed a sitter and United went up the park and scored.
He said: “I always thought the first goal was going to be the winner tonight and we had a great opportunity just before they scored.
“We missed it and they went right up the park and scored.
“Michael just took a bad touch.
“He was stretching to get a great ball from Rhys (McCabe) but there was still a long way for them to go to score. We should have defended better than we did.
‘But there was not a lot between the teams.”