Clark knows chances must be converted

Nicky Clark reckons Dundee United need to sharpen up in front of goal, writes Sean Hamilton.

The Tangerines striker notched the first Premiership strike of his career from the penalty spot in Saturday’s 1-1 draw with St Johnstone.

However, he watched as team-mates spurned a series of opportunities to secure all three points for United – and he knows they can’t afford to be wasteful in the top flight.

Asked whether taking their chances is more important in the Premiership, Clark said: “Definitely. We’ve spoken about it. We won’t get as much time as we did last year.

“No disrespect to the Championship, but there are better players here so we need to up our game.”

Clark’s early penalty against Saints was his first top tier goal.

But in spite of his happiness to have broken his Premiership duck, he was disappointed not to have contributed to an opening day United victory over 10-man St Johnstone.

“It’s my first goal in the Premiership,” said Clark. “I’m obviously delighted with that on a personal level but we’re probably disappointed overall because it’s two points dropped.

“It’s great for the club to be back where it definitely belongs, so it was a good goal for us, but we’re all disappointed on the day.”

He continued: “We probably found it harder to play against (St Johnstone) when they went down to 10.

“I thought we were great in the first half and had some great chances. The keeper has pulled off a couple of good saves.

“We could have gone in two or three up at the break. It is probably a learning curve for us.

“We need to find ways to stop that from happening again. We’re just disappointed overall that we dropped two points.”

United looked a different sort of side under Micky Mellon than under Robbie Neilson last season.

Despite largely similar personnel, the Tangerines seemed more forwardthinking.

Clark reckons the results were clear to see in the first half against Saints.

He said: “(The manager has) brought a lot of different ideas in.

“There are a few things different from last year but all the boys have bought into it.

“Every manager has different ideas and it’s up to the players to react to that. I think they have done that.

“We played some great football in the first half.

“We’re working big on restarts, throw-ins, free-kicks, goal kicks.

“Obviously whenever the ball goes out, that’s the end of that one so we reset and go again. We’ve worked a lot on that.

“We’ve got better at that but there are still improvements we can work on and I’m sure we’ll do that over the course of the season.”

Picture: SNS Group. Nicky Clark scores from the penalty spot, his first goal in the top flight.