Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
United boss slams defending and ‘fears worst’ over Holt injury
JIM Goodwin admits Dundee United’s alarming habit of shipping the first goal in Championship fixtures is “killing” the Tangerines.
The Terrors fell behind for the eighth time in their last 12 games on Saturday, with Inverness’s Wallace Duffy giving the relegationthreatened Highlanders an early lead.
Goodwin described the goal as “terrible” from a United perspective, with Caley Jags wingers Arabim Pepple able to skip away from an impetuous Liam Grimshaw challenge.
His low cross was then parried by Tannadice No 1 Jack Walton straight into the path of the gleefully unmarked Duffy.
“It’s a game that we should have won and that we expect to win,” said Goodwin. “We should have taken three points – but we don’t half make life difficult for ourselves sometimes, with the goals we’ve conceded in the last eight or nine games.
“Only on a couple of occasions in the last 10 or 11 games have we managed to get ourselves that first goal.
“On both of those occasions we’ve gone on to win and win comfortably. Inconsistencies are killing us.
“There was poor decision-making in the build-up to the Inverness goal – terrible defending from our point of view.”
It was left to Louis Moult to climb from the bench and rescue a point for the hosts, netting his 16th goal of the season in remarkable fashion.
The former Motherwell hero shrugged off Cammy Kerr on the half-way line and, spotting Mark Ridgers off his line, proceeded to loop an audacious drive into the net, via the underside of the bar.
“I always fancied that we would score a goal, albeit not a world class goal like the one Moult managed to pull out the hat,” continued Goodwin.
“Louis wasn’t able to start the game, but we always knew that he would have to come on at some point to make a positive impact. I’m delighted he was able to do that.
“He showed good strength, and then to have that awareness of where the Inverness goalkeeper was at that moment, was incredible. And the execution, too – it’s not an easy thing to do.
“It was a brilliant goal from Moulty and shows how important he is to us.”
Meanwhile Goodwin “fears the worst” after Kevin Holt limped out of the contest with just 20 minutes on the clock with a knee injury.
The experienced defender was pictured leaving the stadium in a leg brace and, while still too early to assess the damage, he could be a major doubt for the run-in.
“It doesn’t look great with Kev and his knee,” added Goodwin. “We’ll have to wait on the scan results. But the initial thoughts are that it doesn’t look good. There’s a bit of slackness in his knee.
“Holty isn’t the kind of player to come off, so we fear the worst on that one.”