RUNNING OUT OF CHANCES
Bottom-six finish no help to Shankland in bid for Euros squad
FOR Lawrence Shankland, there was a mixed end to a week in which his international aspirations were dealt a major blow.
Disappointed to be left out of the Scotland squad for the upcoming World Cup qualifiers, the 25-year-old’s reaction was positive as he played a key part in helping Dundee United to a first win over Aberdeen in six years.
But the Tannadice side ultimately fell a point short of a top-six finish. And that means Shankland won’t now have five high-profile games, including against Celtic and Rangers, to stake his claim for further inclusion after Steve Clarke personally assured him the door to Euro 2020 remains open.
A former Scotland international himself, fellow forward Marc McNulty believes it has not aided either his or Shankland’s cause that United under Micky Mellon are a side that does not create many chances.
But after watching his team-mate set up the only goal of the game for Adrian Sporle, he hopes the goals now flow for the second lowest scorers in the Premiership so Shankland can salvage his place at the Euros.
‘Lawrence is definitely good enough,’ McNulty said.
‘He has just found it a bit frustrating this season that he has not scored goals, like myself.
‘We have not made the top six and I think Lawrence or I were probably going to have to score double figures (for that to happen) but neither of us have done that.
‘I think firstly you have to look at yourself and can you do more personally? But sometimes we are not a team that creates a lot of chances every game, which can be frustrating for us strikers who moan all the time.
‘That’s just the way it has been. The manager wants us to press from the front, try to nick the ball higher up the pitch and then create chances.
‘We have been getting better at that recently. Hopefully in the remaining games of the season we can score a few goals between us.
‘There are still a few games left in the season, so we will just have to knuckle down, score goals and then see what happens.
‘For everyone who has not made that Scotland squad, you never know what can happen in football. It can change quickly. You just need to make sure you are ready if need be.’
Prior to kick-off, Dundee United stood instead of taking the knee in a show of support with Glen
Kamara after the Rangers midfielder was racially abused by Slavia Prague’s Ondrej Kudela in a Europa League tie at Ibrox last Thursday.
‘Taking the knee has been happening for a while now,’ nodded McNulty. ‘But one of the boys mentioned before in the changing room about what we could do to raise awareness with Glen Kamara. ‘We thought that was the right thing to do and that’s what we did.’ In a match low on excitement, Aberdeen midfielder Lewis Ferguson was yellow-carded for simulation in the box after tumbling under a challenge from Calum Butcher. Harsh words were exchanged between Butcher and Ferguson, who was adamant he had not dived. But the winning goal, when it arrived just after the hour mark, was a fine team move.
Jeando Fuchs did brilliantly keeping the ball in play at the corner flag before McNulty found Shankland on the right of the box.
The former Don cut the ball back perfectly for Sporle to apply the finishing touch into the bottom left corner.
Defender Andrew Considine believes the defeat means Aberdeen must win all five of their post-split matches to pip Hibs into third place.
But given the Dons have triumphed just once in ten games, and not scored in nine of them,
the Scotland defender’s optimism that the task can be completed is unlikely to be widely shared.
the first match since Derek McInnes’ departure saw the same old story for the Pittodrie side with a lack of spark in the final third.
Seven points behind Hibs, Considine insists the team won’t concede until the easter road side are arithmetically out of sight.
‘It’s going to be very hard to finish third now, but anything can happen in football,’ he said. ‘We have still got Hibs to play but I feel we need to win pretty much every game we have left to make sure of third. ‘that’s going to be a tough ask but we all believe we can still do it. there is definitely belief in the dressing room. Strange things can happen in football. ‘We were all angry that we couldn’t find the back of the net but we played some good football. ‘We just need something to fall for us because we got into many good positions against Dundee United.’