DO OR DOWN
This match with Kilmarnock is ‘huge’, admits Paatelainen Players air grievances as skipper calls survival summit
DUNDEE UNITED boss Mixu Paatelainen admits his side are facing an ‘unbelievable’ task to stay in the top flight if the unthinkable happens and they lose to Kilmarnock at Tannadice today.
Defeat to the second-bottom side would be widely perceived as the final nail in the coffin for a team already 14 points behind Gary Locke’s men and plummeting rapidly towards the Championship.
Manager Paatelainen last night shot down suggestions that selling defender Ryan McGowan to Chinese club Henan Jianye for £300,000 this week was already an admission that they are resigned to their fate.
But the Finn, whose players have held a clear-the-air summit in a l ast- ditch bid to save United from relegation, conceded this afternoon’s game is the last throw of the dice following a dismal period which has seen them pick up just one Premiership win in 12 matches since he replaced the sacked Jackie McNamara.
‘Obviously, if we don’t win against Kilmarnock it will be very difficult for us,’ he said.
‘Mathematically, it will still be possible (to survive) but we do realise the situation and how big the match is. The Kilmarnock match is a huge one, there is no question about that. There is no shying away from that.’
Paatelainen, whose men face a Killie side on the upturn and undefeated in three games in all competitions, confessed it would be his greatest feat as a manager if he could somehow save United from the drop.
‘ I t would be unbelievable, because of where we are, the changes we had to make, the information to players that we had to put in,’ he added.
‘For all of us, it would be an unbelievable achievement because the situation is not good at all. We do feel it is still possible and we are fighting. We will do everything possible tomorrow to win the match and start climbing towards safety.’
Fans howled in derision this week as the reliable McGowan headed out the door following his second spell at the club, hard on the heels of winger Aidan Connolly — who yesterday signed for Raith — and with rumours growing that ex-Rangers kid Charlie Telfer is also surplus to requirements.
Denying that McGowan’s exit was a sign the club hierarchy are already preparing for life in the second tier, with West Ham youngster Kyle Knoyle brought in on loan to fill the void, Paatelainen said: ‘It’s absolutely not the case that selling Ryan means we’re preparing for the Championship.
‘If we were at the other end of the table, then it might still have happened because everything was in place.
‘Ryan was a regular starter with us but that happens in football. I have no problem with Ryan leaving.
‘He’s been an important figure but we’re fine now that he’s gone.
‘There were factors in the deal such as finance and how the team is and what kind of players will play instead of Ryan.
‘The chairman (Stephen Thompson) never told me this deal must happen. He told me there was a possibility and asked me how we would be if he went. I said we’d be fine, no problem at all.
‘ It was a decision we took together. Players come and go. I don’t think we’re any weaker and we’ve made additions to the squad with Kyle Knoyle coming in and there probably will be more.
‘ Kyle will cover one or two positions. He’s a bright prospect.
‘ He doesn’t have too much experience but he is a good player. There are other players we’d like to bring in to boost our defence. The chairman has always said there is money even if Ryan didn’t go, so nothing has changed.’
United’s prospects of survival have become so dismal that captain Sean Dillon called a players’ summit this week in a bid to halt their slump towards the Championship.
And midfielder John Rankin revealed that the meeting had brought out some home truths.
‘We aired a few grievances and it’s one that probably we needed,’ he said. ‘To be honest, we probably needed it earlier in the season but it never came about.
‘Sean took responsibility. He is the club captain and a few players aired what they thought.
‘Training this week has been at a different tempo, a different standard from the few weeks before.’
Admitting that a few arguments had left players ‘ battered and bruised’, Rankin added grimly ahead of today’s Kilmarnock showdown: ‘ I n terms of my Dundee United career, this may well be the biggest game I will have played in. I have played in European ties and I have played in cup finals, but this is bigger than any cup final I have played in.’
On- l oan Wigan striker Billy Mckay still believes United can find a way out of their current predicament and insists he will do everything in his power to prevent a double relegation after slipping into English League One with the Latics last season.
‘Even though I’m here on loan I don’t feel any different, because I’m in this with the rest,’ he said.
‘I am here until the end of the season and I don’t want another relegation on my CV.
‘I went down with Wigan last season but was only there a few months and didn’t really play much of a part. But I can still play a part here and I want to do my bit to save this club.
‘Training around the club this week has been very feisty and we just can’t wait for the game now.’