Stuart McCall was fairly upbeat during the post-match interviews. He talked of our attacking play during the first half, “Law hit the bar and the number of corners won”, and of the defensive work that restricted their goal attempts in the second half. He praised the leadership from the older spine of the team McManus, Lasley and Sutton and acknowledged the contribution from the host of younger players.
Law hit the wall with this attempt
He reckoned that we defended better than we did against St Mirren and acknowledged that it took a fine strike to beat us, even if Bilate had been fortunate to get the break off a bad first touch.
The old cliché about the game of two halves fits the bill for this match. Honours were even as the teams left the pitch after 45 minutes but one sided thereafter. The United players were back on the pitch a full five minutes before we returned. They were put through a warm-up routine to ensure as we finished the half time cuppa.
Cerzniak was a spectator for almost all of the second period. United forced the game into our half and we were unable to take any meaningful control. As the game progressed we defended deeper. That we avoided losing a goal was as much due to United’s carelessness as it was to our frantic rearguard.
We came close to snatching a point. Only seven minutes remained when Twardzik was beaten but we can have no complaint that the game was lost. It was a brave attempt by a weakened team but until we regain full strength we’ll struggle.