Scottish Daily Mail

WATTAN INJUSTICE

United forward ‘upset’ at being axed by Fox

- BRIAN MARJORIBAN­KS

ANY feelgood factor surroundin­g the permanent appointmen­t of Liam Fox as Dundee United manager was swiftly and brutally dissolved by a superior St Johnstone side.

The new Tannadice boss saw his side jeered off at half-time and full-time as they fell to a deserved home defeat that could easily have been more emphatic.

On the field, two points from 24 this season is a miserable return for a squad brimming with talent.

Afterwards, Tony Watt did not exactly paint a picture of harmony behind the scenes as he aired that he was ‘upset’ that he had been omitted from the starting line-up in the former caretaker manager’s first match since officially succeeding Jack Ross.

Watt felt he had performed well in the 2-1 loss at Rangers before the internatio­nal break but Fox (right) told him bluntly that he is not as big a goal threat as forwards Steven Fletcher or Sadat Anaku.

With just one goal in 24 games for the former Celtic star from February up to Saturday, the United manager perhaps had a point.

However, after scoring a late consolatio­n, the much-travelled Watt plans to prove his manager wrong as well as the section of United fans who are also critical of his scarce goal return.

‘I was upset about not playing in the manager’s first game,’ admitted Watt. ‘You want to be in his first XI.

‘I felt I performed quite well at Ibrox and I was out the team in the next game.

‘That was the manager’s choice. He just said to me that the other two boys were more of a goal threat.

‘So I need to score more goals. That’s fine. I need to take that opinion on and be more of a goal threat.

‘Obviously scoring goals is what the manager wants and that’s what I need to do.

‘It’s not as much about performanc­e — it’s about hitting the back of the net. That’s been relayed to me.’

Asked if it was hard to hear such criticism, Watt replied: ‘Yeah, it is. It’s disappoint­ing sitting on a Friday night knowing you’re not playing the next day.

‘But managers get paid to pick teams and I get paid to play. That’s what he’s got to do and that’s fine. I can’t complain about it.

‘I thought I would have played against St Johnstone but the manager picks the team and when I do play I have to make my case.

‘I don’t want to be in the team for 60 or 70 minutes. I want to play 90 minutes every week. That’s why I signed here.

‘I have three years left here and I know the fans are probably on me for not scoring enough goals. I need to score more.

‘Do I need to be a bit more selfish? Probably, yeah.

‘I probably do most of my good work outside the box but I have to do it inside the box or I won’t play — as was shown on Saturday.’

Dundee United started brightly but their confidence was visibly dented when Saints took the lead.

Andy Considine looked up and shelled a lovely ball over a statuelike home defence and into the path of Stevie May. The striker bore down on goal and steered a lovely finish past Carljohan Eriksson and into the postage-stamp corner of the net. May then turned provider after picking up a lovely ball by Ryan McGowan. A fine team move ended with May’s centre being swept home by Melker Hallberg for 2-0. As Saints took their foot off the gas, Watt pulled back a late goal when he turned the ball home on the rebound after Remi Mathews had saved a shot by Aziz Behich. And yet, for such an expensivel­y assembled team, United were poor. Their performanc­e, particular­ly in the opening 45 minutes, brought to mind the old Dolly Parton quote: ‘It costs a lot of money to look this cheap.’ However, Watt insists the quality in the Tannadice home dressing room means their safety is assured.

He said: ‘We won’t get relegated — there’s no way we will let that happen. We have got far too much quality to be in a relegation fight.

‘But we are on a bad run and we need to arrest it. We need to get our fingers out and start climbing the table.

‘There has been a bit of instabilit­y with the manager changing and we haven’t had much of a rub of the green.

‘But we can’t keep using the “luck” excuse because we are not picking up points.

‘We have good players, so we have to start winning games. We have to find a formula that helps us really kick on.

‘There have been good signs but we really have to start picking up points.’

DUNDEE UNITED (3-5-2): Eriksson 5; Smith 6, Edwards 6, Graham 6; Freeman 6 (Middleton 69), Harkes 6 (Meekison 69), Levitt 6, McGrath 6, Behich 5; Fletcher 5 (Watt 56), Sadat 6 (Niskanen 75). Subs not used: Birighitti, McMann, Sibbald, Cudjoe, CleallHard­ing. Booked: Behich, Levitt, Harkes, Meekison, Edwards.

ST JOHNSTONE (3-4-1-2): Matthews 7; Mitchell 7, Gordon 7, Considine 7; Wright 7, Hallberg 7, McGowan 8, Montgomery 7; Murphy 7 (McLennan 72); May 8 (Crawford 72), Clark 7 (Bair 85). Subs not used: Parish, Brown, Gallagher, Mahon, Kucheriavy­i, O’Halloran. Booked: McGowan, Wright, Mitchell.

Man of the Match: Stevie May. Referee: David Munro. Att: 7,977

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