Players get message as boss Mellon thinks big

BEING difficult to break down doesn’t always have to be associated with negativity. Dundee United are a case in point. They will fight and scrap and harry and harass opponents to distraction this season, certainly. But they can also play. More than a bit.

And, newly-promoted though they may be, Micky Mellon’s men are hardly content to simply scrape through this first season back in the Premiership.

Whether or not you accept Mellon’s assertion that United are serious players with genuine ambitions, it’s clear that he’s already convinced the dressing room — often a sceptical audience, to say the least — to get on board.

‘He’s not just saying it for the sake of saying it, he’s saying it because it’s right,’ insisted defender Mark Connolly.

‘We are a big club, one of the biggest clubs in Scotland. We know that and we are buying into that. We feel that pressure, but I think we are handling it well. The manager is just asking us for 100-per-cent effort.

‘The quality is there, that will show. If we give absolutely everything in every single game that’s the minimum we can do, and that has shown in the five games we’ve played so far.

‘This football club is coming back up to the Premiership and we understand it’s going to be difficult every week. But we’ve got a manager with the right work ethic, who sees a lot of young boys who are wanting to do well.

‘Lewis Neilson has just turned 17, Jamie Robson is another young player, Logan Chalmers another one, Luke Bolton as well; we have young boys all over the pitch.

‘We’ve got a young team but they are boys who want to do well and work hard.

‘On top of that, we don’t just run around like headless chickens, we’ve got quality. We’re a fit team and a good team and it’s just about having that bit of belief.’

United were excellent against Celtic on Saturday night, Mellon (pictured) getting his tactics spoton — and directing play from the touchline with the lightest of touches.

It’s not that he doesn’t shout at players. But his tone, encouraging and instructive, repeating key phrases that clearly mean something to the guys on the pitch, is a refreshing addition to a league boasting one or two pottymouthed blowhards in the technical area.

Former Kilmarnock and Crawley stopper Connolly said: ‘There were a lot of questions asked about us coming up from the

Championship, how would we cope; I think we’re proving something.

‘We’ve got a really honest group of boys, they’re committing themselves to contracts, moving into the city — because we’re buying into what the club are trying to do.

‘It’s tough to play against the best team in Scotland for the past nine years. But we’re trying.

‘And the manager is being positive. He can see we’re giving our all for this football club.

‘The way last season finished in the Championship was very disappointing. We wanted to win the league playing all the games.

‘A lot of people have written us off before this season was even started, said we’re not good enough.

‘But we’re disappointed that we haven’t taken something out of every single game so far.’

Just over a year on from signing for the club, Connolly is one of those players to have committed for the long haul, signing a deal that will keep him at Tannadice until 2023.

Having bought a new family home in the city, he’s settled. And loving the challenge of facing up to a stellar talent like Odsonne Edouard.

‘I wanted that,’ explained the 28-year-old. ’I came back up to Scotland to play against that level of test again.

‘I had it years ago when I was captain at Kilmarnock at 22, 23 and then I had bad injuries which set me back for a few years mentally and physically.

‘But that was always at the back of my mind, coming back to Scotland and the Premiership to show what I can do. I had been comfortable at this level before.

‘He (Edouard) is a test. He is without a doubt the best striker in Scotland — looking at maybe moving for £30million or whatever it may be.

‘I thought myself and Mark Reynolds and the other defenders in the back four handled him well.

‘It’s difficult, it’s not easy, he’s a top-class player but I think as a

team we dealt with him well.’