Slick Tangerines down the Saints
DELIGHTED United boss Ray McKinnon hailed the quality of goalscorers Scott Fraser and Tony Andreu as his team moved to within three points of the top of the table.
It was a fine afternoon for the Tayside club and they deserved this victory. They have better players than St Mirren and when they needed to produce the goods, they did.
The only blemish was the red card in the 88th minute for defender Mark Durnan for his second bookable offence.
McKinnon said: “We were excellent in the first half and things are coming together now. Tony Andreu’s finish was brilliant and Scott Fraser is an unbelievable talent.
“I had a word with Mark Durnan about the red card and he told me he forgot he had been booked earlier. What do you say to that? Overall, a really good day for us.”
Amazingly, Durnan’s two bookings both came within three minutes of one another.
This result leaves St Mirren rooted at the bottom with no league wins in nine games. It wasn’t the start new gaffer Jack Ross wanted but he did see plenty to leave him optimistic.
He said: “I don’t think we necessarily deserved to lose the game. There was a lot to be pleased about, really encouraging things. If we can play like that then we’ll be OK.”
Despite being a goal down at the interval, Saints had plenty of possession but a well drilled United defence meant they limited their opponents to long-range shots.
Ross was fairly happy with the way his players went about their business but he would have liked more composure in the final third.
United passed and moved well. They pulled the Saints into areas they didn’t want to go. It looked as though that would eventually lead to a goal and it did, courtesy of Fraser in the 38th minute.
The ball was rolled into the feet of Andreu at the edge of the area and he backed into his marker, waiting for the precise moment to release the ball. The timing of the run from Fraser was perfect and he received a beautiful little dink
from his team-mate, right into his path.
He didn’t need to break stride as he collected the ball then placed a lovely right foot shot past Jamie Langfield from 14 yards.
Andreu brings a different level of talent to the Tayside team.
The on-loan Norwich City man then had an effort cleared off the line in the 50th minute by Gary Irvine.
McKinnon’s men wrapped up the victory in the 74th minute when sub Simon Murray beat Langfield to a 50-50 ball but the keeper managed to block the striker’s effort. However, the ball broke for Andreu, 20 yards out.
He had options to his left and right, but chose the most difficult and that was to chip the keeper from 20 yards out and it sailed beautifully into the back of the net.
The home team deserve credit for never giving up.
Substitute Lawrence Shankland came close on two occasions. Tom Walsh also pressed the goal.
This result was about right. There was enough on show to suggest that United can still win this League and, also, that St Mirren will have enough to climb away from the relegation zone.