WE’RE ALL ON THE RIGHT ROAD NOW
Clark hopes United have cured away daze
THEY were portrayed as powder-puff homebodies with no stomach for the road. But Nicky Clark, Dundee United’s pivotal performer and goalscorer, reckons Saturday’s display in the Highlands will have silenced the critics.
In fairness, consecutive defeats at Ayr United, Alloa and Queen of the South — the latter a 4-0 battering — raised valid doubts as to United’s mettle away from Tannadice.
Former Rangers midfielder Clark, though, feels ready for Friday night’s shortest away trip of the season after bouncing back in style on the second-longest. The 28-year-old said: ‘We had a few poor performances away from home and we knew this was a big week for us with three games.
‘I think we’ve shown what we’re all about — that’s three wins and three clean sheets in seven days. It’s been a good week.
‘This is always a hard place to come, especially in tough conditions. I thought the boys at the back were excellent, especially Paul Watson, who has been great since he came back in.
‘To a man across the team, we were excellent. It’s a massive three points.
‘Our physical side of things had been questioned and rightly so because of the results we had.
‘We proved a point. In the midfield, Calum Butcher and Ian Harkes were making their tackles and the two centrehalves did a great job.’
For Inverness Caley Thistle, this was a galling defeat, seeing them slip seven points behind the leaders after dropping eight points in the last four games.
It was also their fifth straight loss to United — and the third by three goals — including those two Championship play-off defeats at the end of last season.
There were fine margins at play, given the opening own goal from Shaun Rooney and Lawrence Shankland’s fortunate escape from a red card after swinging an elbow in Jamie McCart’s face.
At 1-0 up, United saw goalkeeper Benjamin Siegrist pull off a fine pointblank save from James Keatings.
The away side also survived a major second-half scare as Keatings missed a clear header moments before Clark stormed forward to grab the second.
But, overall, United still looked like clear and deserved winners.
Clark stressed: ‘The game was in the balance at 1-0 — anything can happen.
‘When Butch slipped me in, I just tried to make sure I hit the target and I was delighted when it went in. The goal came at a great time for us.
‘After that, we could relax a bit and play, then we got the penalty. I gave it to Shanks because I’d already scored!’
Clark is raring to go for Friday night’s televised Dundee derby, with the Dens Park hosts stringing together a threegame winning run of their own.
The United midfielder added: ‘We saw bits of their win at the hotel and they’ve had some good results recently.
‘Obviously, they’ll want to make a statement after the last derby when we won 6-2.
‘Maybe Graham Dorrans is making a difference for them but we’ll just concentrate on ourselves and make sure we have a good week’s training.
‘The manager will have a way he wants us to play and it will be our job to execute that game plan.
‘We know it will be tough and we have to be 100-per-cent ready, but we’re really looking forward to it.’
United found their stride first and were ahead after 20 minutes.
Paul McMullan’s cross was heading for the prowling Clark and Shankland, before Rooney stabbed the ball into the roof of the net off the woodwork.
A minute later, the hosts were raging at that Shankland elbow on McCart near the home technical area.
Caley Thistle’s only first-half chance came five minutes before the break. From Aaron Doran’s supply, Keatings found himself square on goal but lost his balance as he struck.
Two Mark Ridgers saves from Harkes and Butcher within six minutes kept Caley Thistle in the game early in the second half before disaster struck for the home side.
They passed up a big chance after 70 minutes, with Tom Walsh’s beautifully floated cross finding Keatings heading down powerfully at the back post, only for it to bounce over the bar.
Within seconds, United had grabbed the vital two-goal advantage. The home defence backed off as Butcher threaded the ball forward and Clark smashed home a 12-yard finish.
Ridgers had no chance from the spot as Shankland inflicted the final damage for his 18th club goal of the season after Miles Storey brought down Liam Smith.
Home winger Walsh admitted: ‘It is very frustrating because it is the fine lines that are letting us down.
‘We know that ourselves. If we take that chance before their second goal, it is a different game potentially.
‘We’ve had five minutes where it all went wrong and the scoreline looks a lot worse than it probably should have done.
‘We have been conceding, so we need to get back to being hard to beat. That’s not just down to the defence, it’s the whole team.
‘We need to be a bit more solid in defence and take our chances.
‘But I still feel, 100 per cent, we can challenge United and maybe inflict a couple of blows of our own.
‘We have shown we can compete. It’s a mad league and nothing can be taken for granted.’