Woeful United put boss back under pressure

By Graeme Dey

“NOT GOOD ENOUGH”.

That was Paul Ritchie’s verdict on not only this display but Dundee United’s campaign overall form.

Chances are no-one of a United persuasion who witnessed Saturday’s dreadful showing at Tynecastle would disagree with him.

A month ago ago when boss Gordon Chisholm was coming under threat from the sack the Tannadice players demonstrated their support for him by putting their heart and soul into grinding out a result against Kilmarnock.

Well now he is back under pressure—and that is due in no small measure to a performance which could not have been more markedly different from the Killie one.

With Dunfermline and Livingston in the league there is little chance of United running into relegation trouble.

But chairman Eddie Thompson is, after investing so heavily on the playing staff over the past three years, banking on a top six finish.

And at the moment United look incapable of living up to his expectations.

Thompson is known to be deeply concerned, not just with results, but also some of the performances and Chisholm is in danger of paying the price for that.

But the players—some of whom ought to be contributing far more than they are—have to shoulder a share of the blame too.

The manager rang the changes for Tynecastle, dropping Mark Wilson, recalling Lee Miller up front, switching Collin Samuel to a right midfield role and reverting to a back four.

The hammering United took, the fact Samuel had a nightmare, Miller was completely out of touch and Wilson was subsequently introduced from the bench, will be viewed in some quarters as evidence he got it wrong.

However, on form grounds the selection decisions concerning Wilson (who hasn’t been playing to his usual high standard) and Miller (because there’s been no sign of a front partnership emerging), seemed justified beforehand and whatever defensive system was employed the Tangerines, as a unit, surely ought not to have given up goals so easily.

This result wasn’t just down to shoddy defending. In every department, particularly midfield, the team came up short.

Fully 25 minutes from the end United fans were heading for the exits.

It’s a fair bet Thompson, sitting stern-faced in the main stand, felt like joining them.

It was that bad.

Indeed, the general situation—just three league wins and 13 points taken from a possible 42—is that bad.

And Ritchie wasn’t pretending otherwise.

“We have got a good squad but we’ve not shown that at all this season,” he said.

“We went through a wee spell there when we got a couple of clean sheets against Kilmarnock and Rangers and went to Falkirk and won.

“But now we’ve lost three games on the bounce.

“That sums up our season—up and down—and we need to work harder at both ends of the park to bring a bit of consistency to our play.

“It’s two weeks to the next game, against Motherwell, and we have to work doubly hard now to get it right.

“We don’t want to end up the same as last season.

“A couple of weeks ago we were flirting with the top six, now we are being drawn back towards the bottom of the table.

“That’s not good enough for a team like Dundee United and players have got to start accepting responsibility.

Four incidents from the 90 minutes summed up United’s display.

The game is just four minutes old and they are ripped open on the break. No great inventiveness about the goal. No resistance to it either. With no sign of a United midfield Saulius Mikoliunas drives straight at the centre of the defence and slips the ball to Paul Hartley to finish the job.

Hearts get a free-kick 30 yards out in the centre of the field. Derek Stillie urgently tries to get a two-man wall of David Fernandez and Mark Kerr set-up to guard the left hand side of his charge but Kerr insists on stepping infield. Rudi Skacel curls the ball towards Stillie’s right hand post, not a defender tries to intervene and it finishes in the back of the net despite Stillie getting both hands on it.

With 57 minutes gone and United at last getting to grips with things, Alan Archibald, who might have prevented the opening goal, blasts an attempted clearance off of Hartley who latches onto the riccochet and squares for Michal Pospisil to net.

The Tangerines are awarded a penalty but Barry Robson’s spot-kick is blocked by Craig Gordon. The ball comes back to Robson at head height but he succeeds only in nodding it straight into the keeper’s arms.

Talk about contributing to your own downfall.

Hearts are a class act and the pace they have in their side would trouble most teams. But pretty much any SPL side would have prospered against United the way they performed.

“The better team won the game,” acknowledged Ritchie, “They could have won by four or five.

“But we gave ourselves a mountain to climb by conceding the first goal.

“We’d prepared all week for this game, aware of how difficult a couple of weeks it’s been for Hearts.

“The idea was to come here, keep it tight for the first 20-25 minutes and see how their supporters and players reacted.

“But we gave them a goal of a start and when you do that against teams of this quality you are fighting a losing battle.

“We’ve been doing it all season—losing bad goals.

“And it is killing us.”

The penalty apart, Gordon was stretched just once, when he produced a fantastic save to keep out a curling effort from Robson.

Miller had a great chance at 1-0 but headed wide when he ought to have scored.

Little wonder Chisholm wore a pained expression as he reflected upon the 90 minutes.

“When you come to places like Tynecastle you cannot afford to get off to a start like we did and if you do get chances at the other end you’ve got to take them,” he grimaced.

Taken from the Courier