NEILSON EARNS A FLYING START
Dominant United pile the pain on rudderless Jags
BAD as things may be at Dundee United, this will surely have assuaged any doubts Robbie Neilson may have had in sticking with them in the wake of a late Partick Thistle bid to pilfer his services in midweek.
There are still questions over United’s finances in the wake of Stephen Thompson’s reign as chairman. There is still unease over his successor and former vice-chairman Mike Martin as the wait goes on for that long-promised outside investment.
However, this win, carved out through goals from Fraser Aird and Pavol Safranko before substitute Jai Quitongo’s late consolation, proved who has the better squad of the two as things stand.
Partick Thistle were poor overall. Nothing short of scandalous for the first hour.
Despite a late rally in the closing 15 minutes, when United took their foot off the gas, panicked and remembered how they managed to get Csaba Laszlo the sack, the home side simply were not at the races.
Chairman Jacqui Low has promised that a successor to Alan Archibald will be brought in next week. She must worry, though, that the club stuck too long with their former manager in the wake of the slow, inexorable slide towards relegation last season. There is certainly considerable rebuilding to do on the basis of both this and a deeply disappointing start to the campaign.
For new Tannadice boss Neilson, at least, there seems something to work with despite all United’s issues on and off the field. With a bit of organisation, they should certainly be in the hunt for the title in a Championship arguably not as strong on quality as past versions.
Paul McMullan was enterprising and inventive, Sam Stanton did well on his first game back, Safranko caused trouble up front and Fraser Fyvie is becoming stronger after long-term injury. Getting off on the right foot with a travelling support of just under 1,000 provides a decent platform.
Callum Booth, returning to his old club, set the trend when forcing home keeper Cammy Bell to palm the ball over the bar. It would be the beginning of a long, sustained assault on the Thistle goal that, based on the law of averages alone, had to cough up a couple of goals sooner rather than later.
Safranko was next to test Bell, forcing a good low save at the near post from an Aird cross and seeing Sean McGinty hack the ball clear after Fyvie had failed to bury the rebound.
Safranko and Aird then failed to hit the target from promising positions before United had a goal chalked off on 32 minutes. Stanton delivered a great cross and Safranko sent a powerful downward header bouncing high into the net, but linesman Ross Macleod had raised his flag for offside.
Frederic Frans was denied by another excellent save with a good header from a set-piece, but just when it looked like Thistle might somehow weather the storm until half-time, Aird gave the visitors the lead in the closing seconds of the opening 45.
Fyvie released Stanton on the right with a sharp pass and his cross picked out the former Rangers and Dunfermline winger inside the area. Aird’s first-time volley beat Bell to his left and nestled in the corner of the net.
Any hopes of Thistle making a proper game of it were scotched pretty early in the second period. Just 25 seconds in, McMullan released Stanton with a slide rule pass — only for the midfielder to blaze the ball high and wide. Safranko would make no such mistake two minutes later.
McMullan released a low, angled shot from the right of the area that Bell could only palm into open space. Niall Keown failed to react to the danger and the on-loan Slovak striker tapped home from a matter of yards out.
For a while afterwards, it looked like the only remaining entertainment would come from the home support roasting former player Adam Barton following his introduction in place of Fyvie. That was, until Thistle, somehow, got back into it.
Chris Erskine picked up the ball and played a forward pass that seemed unlikely to cause too many problems until United defender Rachid Bouhenna started thinking about what he was going to have for his tea back up the road.
He switched off, Quitongo, on for Kris Doolan, muscled in ahead of him inside the area and only good things can be said about his calm, low finish under the body of goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist.
That was the Jags’ only shot on target over the entire 90 minutes, though. Three wins from nine league games tells its own story.
Whoever Thistle bring in, he is going to have quite a job to pull this season back from the brink.