The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Goal hero feels United can fight on two fronts
United notch up back-toback wins and seal place in Scottish Cup last eight
Scott Fraser is confident Dundee United can fight on two fronts after shooting them into the last eight of the William Hill Scottish Cup.
Fraser will be tuning in for the quarter-final draw when it is made by former Celtic midfielder Lubo Moravcik at Hampden tonight.
That United’s name is in the hat is thanks to the substitute’s 85thminute strike against Partick Thistle that separated the sides in a scrappy clash at Tannadice on Saturday.
Of course, the priority for Fraser and his team-mates is avoiding relegation from the Premier ship.
Nevertheless, he feels comfortable combining the league battle with cup progress, arguing that it need not be a case of choosing one over the other.
He said: “I’m sure if you offered us a cup run or the chance to stay in the league, then everyone knows what we would choose. It would be staying up but I don’ t see why it has to be one or the other.
“OK, this wasn’ t in the league but it’s still another win and we’ll take it. We are going game to game and this cup tie was a chance to win another match and get our confidence even higher.
“Thankfully, we managed to do that. It is not as if we have too many games and we didn’t have a match last weeks owe weren’ t tired.
“Now we can all look forward to the quarter-final draw.”
The winning goal was a thing of beauty on a day when the football wasn’t really all that pretty at Tannadice.
There area few colourful Scots or even Dun done se words you could have used to describe much of the play before Dundee United secured a 1-0 win over Partick Thistle in the William Hill Scottish Cup fifth round on Saturday.
Indeed, Scott Fraser, the scorer of the winning goal, himself picked “minging”.
It was a fine selection from the 20- yearold Dun don ian and it had those who heard it nodding in agreement.
However, when it came to describing the goal that took United into the quarterfinals then you needed a nicer choice altogether.
Fraser’s 85th-minute goal was a cracker or, if you prefer, an absolute belter. He was played in by a terrific reverse pass from Blair Spittal and the midfielder then sent his low drive into the far corner of the net, giving Thistle goalie Tomas Cerny no chance.
Fraser, who had come on as a substitute for Ryan Dow, said: “It was a great feeling.
“It wasn’t so good being on the bench but after the way we played in the last game against Kilmarnock it was understandable the gaffer didn’t make any changes. He just threw me on and I managed to get the goal.
“It was a great pass and you come to expect it from Blair because he has been on a good run of form. It something we have been practising in training.
“Rather than me get the ball and try to pass, the manager wants me to get on the end of passes too. Thankfully, Spitts saw my run and I’ve put it in the net.”
Fraser revealed that, sitting watching from the sidelines, he was confident he could come on and be a match-winner.
All he had to do was persuade manager Mix Up a ate lain en to give him an opportunity. “It was a horrible game ,” added Fraser. “At half-time we spoke about it and the gaffer said to us that sometimes you get games like that, ones that are minging to watch.
“Thankfully, we managed to get the goal and we’re in the next round. “I was dying to get on. “I was watching it and I saw room on the pitch I thought I could exploit and I was just trying to get in the gaffer’s eyeline when he was making the subs to make sure he saw me. “Thankfully, he put me on.” United have now won back-to-back matches for the first time since following up their League Cup semi-final win over Aberdeen at H amp den with victory in the Scottish Cup down at Stranraer exactly a year ago today.
Indeed, they have won three of their last four fixtures – beating Airdrie, Kilmarnock and now Thistle, losing only to Celtic in that time.
Of course, they will need many more wins if they are to turn their season around but this result will boost confidence ahead of Saturday’s tough trip to Hamilton in the league.
Tangerines boss Paatelainen said: “We’ve got to be delighted with the end result. It’s a very good feeling to be through. That was the aim and we got there in the end.
“It was not the best performance-wise but we fought for it and that’s what you have to do.”
As for Fraser’s winning strike, Paatelainen added: “It was a fantastic finish.
“He is a good finisher with great technical ability. It was just great to see the ball hit the back of the net. Of course, we want to build on this and try to win every game. That’s us with two wins in a row and we just have to keep going .”
Partick Thistle manager Alan Archibald admitted the defeat was hard to take.
The Jags had looked confident they were heading for a replay at Firhill until Fraser struck with just five minutes left.
Archibald said: “It was a sore one with the late goal. I don’t think anybody deserved to win the game, it looked like a draw all the way.
“There wasn’t a lot of quality. Defensively we were good up to the goal. We lost the ball in a bad area and they scored with a bit of quality.
“We changed the shape to combat the way United play. They are very, very direct with their two boys up front.
“I thought we handled that but we didn’t create enough. We had a wee spell in the second half before the substitutions but it filtered away.”
Meanwhile, Paatelainen welcomed new signing Edward Ofere to United, saying: “He will give us power, aerial ability. We have been looking for that big centre forward for quite a while now.
“He will certainly give us another dimension, there is no question about that.”