KEEPER’S ERROR LEAVES A MARK
Birighitti fronts up after howler costs United
MARK BIRIGHITTI believes you need real cojones to make it as a goalkeeper — and he is going to have to show that quality in abundance should Dundee United head coach Liam Fox keep the faith after another costly blunder and put him back between the sticks in the shooting gallery of Celtic Park.
The 31-year-old Australian targeted a place in the Socceroos’ World Cup squad when he signed a two-year deal at Tannadice in the summer. Instead, he paid the price for a nightmare start to the campaign when being replaced by Carljohan Eriksson five appearances in after losing 11 goals in a matter of days to AZ Alkmaar and Hearts.
A hamstring injury then kept him out of action for a while and, on his grand return to the team at home to Motherwell on Saturday, he was left shouldering a substantial share of the blame after failing to deal with a free header from Sondre Solholm Johansen midway through the first half and seeing the ball bounce over the line to send the Tangerines to the bottom of the Premiership.
Yet, Birighitti fronted up in the wake of his side’s third straight loss to talk through what has been a horrendously tough start to life in Scotland and insist he is ready to go again at the weekend.
For him, Parkhead is about much more than serving as some kind of lamb to the slaughter. It is about proving he is justified in believing he really does have what it takes to play at this level.
Yet, it is impossible to forget that Ange Postecoglou’s side scored nine away from home against United last time out — bringing down the curtain on former manager Jack Ross’ short stay at Tannadice when Eriksson was in goal — and will smell blood again.
‘That was another horrendous game,’ said Birighitti. ‘We have tightened things up at the back, though, and we’re not really giving many opportunities away.
‘It’s a great occasion. We have to be ready for Saturday. It’s a big game and we’ll go there and give it a real hot crack.’
That Birighitti remains upbeat after all that has gone on in recent months is something to hold onto. After the ignominy of that 7-0 Europa Conference League qualifying loss to AZ and a 4-1 loss at Tynecastle days later, he used his time away from the team to regroup and reassess his game.
Birighitti does have a certain pedigree. He was twice voted Goalkeeper of the Year in Australia’s A-League. And he retains a conviction that he can put the memories of that humiliating night in Alkmaar to bed through time.
‘Goalkeeping is a special position and you need big b **** to recover from from that,’ he said. ‘Personally, I could have done better with a couple of my decisions in that game, but it’s football and I had a bit of time out of the team.
‘I want to be playing. I’ve just been working hard trying to rectify things in my game that I can improve on. Confidence has been a bit low but I believe in my qualities.’
Days like Saturday don’t help, though. Birighitti was hardly assisted by his team-mates, who failed to react when a quick free-kick saw Blair Spittal given time to pick out Solholm Johansen with a cross from the right.
However, he should have done better when pushing the ball into the air and seeing it bounce behind him before going over the line with Ricki Lamie pushing aside Tony Watt to make sure.
Even though they just about had the best of a strange second half in which Motherwell went into their shells, United’s hopes suffered a real blow when Tony Watt was sent off in the 40th minute for a high tackle on Sean Goss.
Referee John Beaton let it go despite Goss going down like the dying fly. Following the intervention of VAR David Munro, though, he went to the pitchside TV screen for a second look and returned to flash a red card.
Watt’s challenge certainly didn’t use excessive force. Whether it endangered the safety of Goss is a debatable point. Certainly, Fox was in no doubt that Watt was trying to pull his foot away and it would be a surprise if there isn’t an appeal submitted to the SFA to test the water.
For Solholm Johansen, though, that matters little. He was urged by Motherwell manager Stevie Hammell to score more often during a recent sitdown and hopes the matchwinner at Tannadice — and his first for the Fir Park club — will be a real lift-off point.
‘I was a bit of a goalscorer back in Norway and it is nice to get back in there,’ he said. ‘I came here expecting to dominate a lot more, but it is a bit more physical here and I needed to change the way I moved in the box in order to get the opportunities I used to get.
‘I hope that will be a turning point.’