McNamara staying grounded as United move to top of the pile

FB ABDUNDEE United manager Jackie McNamara maintains his side won’t get carried away after returning to the top of the Scottish Premiership thanks to their convincing win over St Mirren at Tannadice at the weekend.

United sit a point ahead of Hamilton after leapfrogging them on Saturday with goals from Paul Paton just before half-time, followed by further strikes from Nadir Ciftci and Charlie Telfer which proved more than enough to see off lacklustre St Mirren on Tayside.

The Tangerines are already in the League Cup semi-final where they’ll face holders Aberdeen at the end of January but McNamara won’t allow them to get carried away.

McNamara said: “It’s been a good week overall. We said at the start of the week if we could get two wins it could work out well for us and so it has proved. It flattered us a wee bit to be 1-0 up at half-time but there were signs that we were getting back to our best after that.

“St Mirren came at us in the first-half and caused us a few problems. Rado [Radoslaw Cierzniak] had a good save for us early in the second-half to keep it at 1-0 and when our second goal goes in you can see that everyone is a lot more confident.

“It was a massive difference from last Saturday when we lost away to Inverness. I felt we were more like ourselves in terms of passing and movement which was pleasing and the goals were all well-taken from our point of view.

“It’s very pleasing as well as we made quite a few changes but it worked out well and the players deserve credit for their efforts.

“However, we know we can still do better and we will keep striving to do that. We’ll take one game at a time as we always do and see where it takes us.”

Meanwhile, St Mirren manager Tommy Craig felt Adam Drury’s miss just after the break was the turning point in the game. Craig said: “That’s been the story of our season. It showed itself within the space of just a few minutes.

“We were clean through and didn’t finish at the start of the second-half and then they go up the park and score, so it’s very frustrating.

“Until we consistently put the ball in the net we’re always going to be looking over our shoulder.” TONY Andreu salvaged a point for Hamilton with a dramatic late equaliser but he insists they should have been celebrating a win against Partick instead.

Accies had stormed into a two-goal lead at New Douglas Park thanks to two goals in the space of two minutes by Darian MacKinnon and Danny Redmond.

But Thistle produced a superb comeback to seize the advantage after Jordan McMillan, James Craigen and Christie Elliott all found the back of the net.

It was Andreu who had the final say with a 25-yard strike four minutes into injury time, leaving Partick devastated by the outcome.

But the Frenchman was far from satisfied with the result, claiming Hamilton only had themselves to blame for throwing away the three points.

He said: “My goal was a good goal but we should never have been in that position and we can’t be happy with our performance.

“When you are two goals up you can’t afford to lose three goals and we were fortunate to come back at the end. Three mistakes gave Thistle their goals and when we scored our two goals we stopped playing.

“We dropped back and allowed Partick to control the ball and that was a mistake. But we are used to coming back in games and we did that again.”

The result lifted Dundee United above Hamilton to the summit of the Scottish Premiership. Andreu added: “People can say we have had our chance at the top but we know what we can achieve in our dressing room.

“We can do better and we have shown that in ten games this season. You always need to keep looking upwards and that’s what we will do.”

Elliott thought he had snatched the winner for Partick, admitting: “It just feels like a defeat.

“To come back from 2-0 down to draw 3-3, everyone’s just gutted in the changing room. Going 3-2 up then losing a goal in the last second was devastating.

“I thought we had done enough as I couldn’t see them scoring but in football you always get a chance near the end. ”

Elliott was booked for whipping off his jersey to reveal a vest bearing the number nine during his goal celebration and revealed the act was a tribute to his late friend.

He said: “I had been wanting to do that celebration for a while. It was for my best friend Aaron Todd who passed away when I was younger. It was also his dream to become a professional footballer so I wanted to show that I’m proud of him as well.”