United need to stop giving out lifelines, says Durnan

DUNDEE UNITED: Defender reckons defensive work was most significant

Dundee United defender Mark Durnan admits the Tangerines have to stop handing the opposition lifelines.

What has a been a good recent spell for the Tannadice men, with successive wins over St Mirren in the Irn-Bru Cup final and Ayr United in the Championship, has still seen them chuck away leads.

They conceded a penalty against the Honest Men after being caught out by a quick freekick, while their advantage over the Buddies at Fir Park only lasted a minute.

On both occasions, United managed to get back in front and clinch 2-1 victories.

However, Durnan, who grabbed the winner against Ayr at Tannadice on Tuesday night, concedes that they can’t keep letting the other team back into it if they are to secure second spot behind runaway leaders Hibs.

Durnan said: “We are definitely frustrated about that.

“At their goal, we switched off at a free-kick and Ayr played it quickly.

“I have not seen it back but I thought it was pretty soft at the time.

“Nevertheless, we switched off and gave a team a lifeline that they should not have had.

“After we scored that first goal we should have gone on and stuck a few away. Also, on Saturday we conceded straight away after going ahead.

“We have to try to ensure that doesn’t happen. If it does you need to make sure the heads don’t go down and the confidence stays up.

“When you concede, though, it’s harder to stay positive.”

Durnan turned out to be a hero both in attack and defence as the Tangerines edged out Ayr.

He smashed the winning goal home on 79 minutes then blocked Alan Forrest’s close-range shot four minutes into stoppage-time before team-mate Stewart Murdoch did the same to thwart Craig McGuffie.

Durnan said: “We had to dig in and get the second goal and I’m just delighted I found myself in that position and that I put it away.

“I couldn’t have caught it any better, to be fair.

“It doesn’t really matter to me how they come about and we all try to chip in with goals.

“I guess the goals I have scored, though, have been important ones for us and picked us up points, which is good.”

The strike was crucial but the big man believes his last-ditch defending at the end was even more important.

Asked to rank the two in order of significance, Durnan said: “I actually think it has to be block at the end there and getting the ball away.

“That was much more important because we shouldn’t have allowed them to get into a position where they almost had a tap-in.

“I think he should have scored but I just threw my leg at it and got a toe on it.

“Murdo then made a great block for the second shot which was just as important. So it wasn’t just me putting myself on the line – the other lads did too.

“Of course, if I don’t score the goal then we don’t win the match so they were both vital.”

It was said by many in the wake of the cup final that the silverware could help them transform their league form.

Beating Ayr was a good start and they now have to carry the momentum down to Dumfries to play Queen of the South this weekend.

Durnan added: “This year has been very frustrating. We had not won in the league for a while before Tuesday.

“Over the 2017 calendar we just haven’t done enough to win matches.

“In order to change that, we have been doing a lot of work on the media side in terms of watching the videos back.

“It is about taking things on board and then going out on a match day and being solid and not giving away chances.

“It’s hard to say what has been going wrong and you could suggest a number of things but maybe conceding these goals has been making the heads go down.

“We need to keep fighting and stay confident.

“Palmerston is a tough place to go and a lot of teams find it difficult on the artificial turf. But we have gone down there twice this season and done pretty well.

“We now hope to take the momentum form these last two wins into Saturday.”

Mark Durnan: a hero at both ends of the pitch against Ayr on Tuesday.