Watt’s Euro warning for ‘lazy’ United
ALMOST ten years on from scoring his famous winning goal for Celtic against Barcelona in the Champions League, Tony Watt is hoping for a fresh European glory night this week with Dundee United. But the forward has warned that a repeat of Sunday’s disappointing showing against Livingston will see Jack Ross’s side knocked out of the Europa Conference League by AZ Alkmaar. The Tannadice side travel to the Netherlands for Thursday’s second leg with a 1-0 lead after a thrilling encounter on Tayside was settled by a stunning goal from Glenn Middleton on his full United debut. However, after United then fell to defeat in the Premiership on Sunday following Cristian Montano’s 22-yard shot for Livingston, Watt knows a big improvement on that ‘lazy and sloppy’ showing is required if United are to enjoy a prolonged European adventure. ‘The tie isn’t over yet. It’s only half-time and if we play anything like we did against Livingston, then it won’t be good enough,’ said the 28-year-old. ‘We need to work a lot harder than we did on Sunday, be better on the ball and believe in ourselves more. ‘We were too sloppy and too lazy. We never brought a good tempo to the game and that’s all on us as players. Fair play to Livingston because they won the game fair and square. But we never put a foot right and we need to be much better than that. ‘It shouldn’t be a challenge to reach the levels we reached against AZ Alkmaar. We are professional footballers. We’re programmed to do this job and we should be doing our jobs right. On Sunday, we didn’t. ‘We can’t produce anything like Sunday again this season — let alone this week.’ Eyebrows were raised when Watt left then high-flying Motherwell midway through last season to join United. But while the Steelmen crashed out of Europe to Sligo Rovers, nights like last Thursday evening against Alkmaar under the lights at Tannadice more than justified his decision to head up the A9. Now he is determined to give the 1,300 lucky United fans who got tickets for the second leg at the AFAS Stadium a night to remember. ‘Last Thursday was unbelievable,’ he smiled. ‘The place was rocking and hopefully we can see that a lot more often at Tannadice. ‘I don’t think AZ underestimated us. I just think we performed well and we need to get back to that. ‘It’s a shame we don’t have more tickets for the second leg but, hopefully, we can make the United fans over there proud. ‘We will work as hard as we can, and believe in ourselves, and see what happens. There are goals in this team. The manager has built a great side but we need to do what he asks from us more. We need to lift our heads up and make sure Livingston is a one-off.’