Miles Storey of Partick Thistle rises high to reach the ball before Dundee United’s Frederic Frans

ROBBIE Neilson needed only a few days of working with his players at Dundee United for him to believe he has a squad capable of promotion.

The appointment of a new manager often gives even the most demoralised of teams a boost and so that proved to be the way in what was a good, proper first day at the office.

This was a hugely one-sided contest until Thistle gave themselves a shake far too late on in the game for them to save a point.

At Ayr last weekend, the Tannadice men were themselves woeful; however, the new manager has managed to find, in the space of a few days, some mojo within a group that has taken a battering this season.

“One of the reasons I came was the good fan base and the good club,” said Neilson.

“There is a great training ground and the quality in the team is very good. We have to build on this.

“Let’s hope this is not a false dawn but the start of something. I can feel that togetherness in the dressing room. The club has been through a lot recently and so have the fans but let us hope this is the turning point.”

United were impressive from the start of the encounter.

They came close to scoring a fair few times in the first half before they actually did, most notably after 11 minutes when, following some crisp passing – not a regular feature this season – Callum Booth’s shot was superbly kept out by Cammy Bell in Thistle’s goal.

From that corner, Bell again was sharp to keep out an effort by Pavol Safranko from close range.

And then, on the half hour, a lively Paul McMullan hit the post with a low shot, while Thistle were struggling to keep their shape at the back.

United, however, did score right on half-time. Sam Staunton put in a superb cross from the right and Fraser Aird matched it with a lovely volleyed finish into the bottom corner.

United doubled their lead within minutes. With Thistle all over the place, McMullan’s shot was saved – but not held - by Bell and Safranko fulfilled his tap-in duties.

Thistle, out of nowhere, got back into the game with 13 minutes to go. Chris Erskine’s pass allowed Jai Quitongo to go one-on-one with United defender Rachid Bouhenna, and the striker was too strong for his marker and then calmly placed his shot between the legs of Benjamin Siegrist.

Thistle finished strongly, and Quitongo brought much-needed energy to his team – which did rather leave you with the question: Why did it take them so long to get started?

Not for Neilson, who turned down an approach from Partick Thistle before accepting the Tannadice post, to answer.

“I think they showed two sides of it today,” said Neilson of his own United charges. “They showed energy in the first 60 minutes, which was great but when they have a new manager coming you often get that bounce. But you also saw the resilience at the end as well.

“We could have gone two up, then lost a goal and people would have said Dundee United have crumbled in the past few years,” Neilson added.

Gerry Britton, Thistle chief executive, and for the moment stand-in manager, said he hoped the new boss would be in the dugout next Saturday.

“We’ve been working hard all week, since the board made the decision last Saturday [to sack Alan Archibald], the deadline was on Friday and we’ve had a good core of applicants,” Britton said.

“Ideally, we will have someone in the post for the next match.”