Stroll for United while Thistle left struggling
Csaba Laszlo took his Dundee United promotion hopefuls to Aviemore recently – and insists they’re all geared up to reach the summit of the Championship. Laszlo’s side climbed into third place courtesy of Paul Watson’s towering headers in either half and Craig Curran’s late clincher, sweeping past Partick Thistle, who’ve now suffered two defeats of the new campaign with only substitute Chris Erskine’s injury-time consolation to show for their efforts. United were steeling themselves for a sterner test from a side who held Premiership status last season, but this proved to be a stroll. And boss Laszlo beamed: “It’s a game we really deserved to win. “I have to give the boys so much credit for defeating a team who will be challenging for promotion as the season progresses. “We’ve had a lot of critics recently, but I said it would take a little bit of time to come good. “We’ve had 15 new players come to the club over the summer, so there have been many changes. “There was a lot of disappointment over the summer and our first game losing to Dunfermline was a hard one to take. “However, we can take a lot of confidence from this result and, hopefully, we can go front strength to strength. “Now we have to development more as a team and I’m sure we can as times goes on.” United’s players had spent last weekend in the Highlands on a teambuilding exercise due to their inactivity after an early exit from the Betfred Cup. This fixture was deemed a barometer to see how they would fare this season given Thistle were considered title challengers. For the visitors, Craig Slater returned to Tayside after a frustrating spell on loan with United towards the end of last season, where injury and lack of gametime saw him feature only sparingly. The former Colchester United forward had a point to prove having joined Thistle earlier in the summer , but his team-mates surprisingly lacked the drive needed if they hope to return to the top flight. United were aided somewhat in six minutes when Thomas O’Ware, Thistle’s commanding central defender, limped off after landing awkwardly. Soon after, the hosts went ahead. Without the aerial prowess of O’Ware to overcome, Fraser Aird’s free-kick into the penalty area picked out Watson who showed admirable awareness to guide a looping header back across Cammy Bell
and into the far corner of the net. Thistle looked petrified in the absence of O’Ware’s calming presence. Their only glimpse of goal was midway through the first-half, but Miles Storey’s half-hearted effort trickled into Matej Rakovan’s arms, before striker Pavol Safranko, saw his header clear the bar at the other end. The pattern remained similar after the break with the hosts retaining control. Thistle, though, did threaten on the hour mark as Blair Spittal’s glancing header wasn’t far away. But Watson made sure with 12 minutes remaining, thumping home a header high past Bell from Yannick Loemba’s corner, prior to Curran rounding things off with a tap-in from Aird’s cutback. Erskine did pull one back in injury-time when Rakovan had spilled, leading to a close-range finish, but that did nothing to improve the mood of Alan Archibald, their manager. Archibald said: “Two set-plays killed us and you can’t afford to do that coming to a place like Tannadice. “There want anything in the game, but when you defended like that that’s what it will come down to in the end. “The loss of Tom O’Ware did unsettle us and we lost a goal right after it which didn’t help.”