What about the Terrors eh? Spending Saturday night joint top of the league after 10 games played when everyone and their granny was predicting them to be in a relegation dogfight.
Tam Courts is a Scottish Pep.
Absolutely crazy how well we're doing this campaign and it was another big three points on Saturday that we had to dig deep and work hard for. And the points came from two of our most important players - Ryan Edwards, and particularly Charlie Mulgrew. I'll come back to those two shortly.
On Motherwell, they'll feel aggrieved not to have taken anything from the game and probably deserved a point, but they're the kind of team I don't particularly like. There's not much football in them at all. They've filled their team with big physical players and they turn games into a battle. That made the game on Saturday a bit of an ugly one and the players had to dig deep to get the result.
Any football that was played was played by us and when we did manage to pop the ball about in midfield we looked very good. Sadly we couldn't do it often enough as they matched up our formation and stifled the midfield.
But we did manage to breakthrough in the first half and what a goal it was. A freekick from the right broke down after a poor delivery from Mulgrew, but somehow the ball broke back to him in the right wing position. After a magnificent little shimmy to skip away from one player, he then flighted an incredible right footed cross to the right back to pick out his centre half partner Ryan Edwards to bullet a header home. If you haven't seen it, go and watch it. It was fantastic.
They equalised in the second half - Benji came and got the man rather than the ball after we were put under pressure from one of the many corners Motherwell got in the game, and Watt converted the penalty. We'll let Benji off with the mistake though after a couple of wonderful saves.
I was really pleased at how we stuck in. It would have been easy for us to get bullied out of the game, particularly after the equaliser, and that's where the importance of your senior players come in, and particularly from the two centre halfs who i thought were outstanding yet again. Their leadership, the way they organise the team, and the assurance of their play has to be a calming influence on the players around them.
And it helps when they contribute at the other end too. A delivery from Pawlett was flighted into the box, Mulgrew got some kind of flick, Edwards, somehow knocked it back across goal and then Mulgrew did some kind of kung-fu kick which came off the defender and ended up in the back of the net. After that we saw the game out and it was another three points for the Terrors.
As I say though it was a battle which isn't really our style. I thought some of the players had to show great character to get through it and for the younger players it would have been a learning curve. Freeman I thought struggled with it, particularly when Watt tried to play on him and they put high balls on top of him. The midfield trio also struggled to impose themselves on the game in the way they normally do. But they all kept going and grew into the game as it progressed, and they should be happy with their work.
I also want to comment on the workrate of Niskanen which I thought was tremendous throughout the game. Very impressed by how hard he worked.
Let's finish on those two central defenders though. I don't think I've been as impressed by a central defensive pairing for a long, long time at United. I absolutely love both of them. One of my mates in the group chat compared the signing of Mulgrew to that of Andy Webster, and I have to agree with that. As well as being a tremendous player himself, he's making those around him better and he's formed a fantastic (and incredibly handsome) partnership with Edwards. Long may it continue.
Mon the Terrors
DUFC 2 MFC 1
posted on 25/10/21
It looks like there’s a wee bit more to this team than grinding out one nil wins - last week we absolutely thumped Hibs, and on Saturday we chased the win after they pegged us back to 1-1. The work rate throughout the team is phenomenal - it’s as fit a Utd team as we’ve seen since Houston was the manager (although I agree - a special shout out to Niskannen). Motherwell are utterly brutal, you can see why they went on a good run earlier in the season but it’s not great to watch.
Thought Levitt really played well, it was a physical match but once he got to grips with that he started to find the little pockets of space to start picking out passes (including a great wee drop of the shoulder to send the Motherwell bid for chips before he played it to Mulgrew in the build up to our first goal).
That was a game which would’ve finished 1-1 last season, or with Motherwell sneaking a winner. It’s great to see things starting to swing round our way. Mon the Terrors.
posted on 25/10/21
The Dundee teams are level on head to head against the Glasgow and Edinburgh teams so far this season, with Dundee unbeaten against two very good Edinburgh sides and United unbeaten against the admittedly poor Glasgow sides. If you want football of the highest standard, you won't any better than in Dundee. And that's proven with facts.
posted on 25/10/21
comment by Stephen McGinn (U1734)
posted 5 minutes ago
The Dundee teams are level on head to head against the Glasgow and Edinburgh teams so far this season, with Dundee unbeaten against two very good Edinburgh sides and United unbeaten against the admittedly poor Glasgow sides. If you want football of the highest standard, you won't any better than in Dundee. And that's proven with facts.
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united have one less beast in their team however... something they might target in the next window
posted on 25/10/21
Tam Courts the next big thing or this seasons Martindale/Davidson?
posted on 25/10/21
Gerrard ?
posted on 25/10/21
comment by HB Fash (U21935)
posted 7 minutes ago
Tam Courts the next big thing or this seasons Martindale/Davidson?
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hard to compate, Martindale managed his good form on the back of being organised, defensive kicking the $hit out of opponents and using the pitch to be the ultimate leveller.
Courts seems to have that team well coached in use of the ball.
In football its always been easier to shut up shop than it has been break teams down
posted on 25/10/21
comment by HB Fash (U21935)
posted 1 hour, 13 minutes ago
Tam Courts the next big thing or this seasons Martindale/Davidson?
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I suppose we'll wait and see on that. It's hard to gauge as he has no managerial history to base any assumptions on.
He does seem supported by good recruitment that will help him. Our record over the last couple of years has been very good in the transfer market and if we can keep improving the squad with quality players then it gives him a good chance of succeeding. The challenge will be when we lost players and how he copes with that.
posted on 26/10/21
Not many games where both goals come from a centre-back assisting another centre-back.
And the inclusion of Shawn Michaels's intro music for Mulgrew's goal is just perfection. He is one shexy boy.
posted on 27/10/21
comment by Drunken Hobo (U7360)
posted 19 hours, 43 minutes ago
Not many games where both goals come from a centre-back assisting another centre-back.
And the inclusion of Shawn Michaels's intro music for Mulgrew's goal is just perfection. He is one shexy boy.
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Wait...what? Did I miss this? I really, really hope Ronny played that after his goal. If not he should!
posted on 28/10/21
comment by IvanGolacIsMagic (U5291)
posted 1 day, 3 hours ago
comment by Drunken Hobo (U7360)
posted 19 hours, 43 minutes ago
Not many games where both goals come from a centre-back assisting another centre-back.
And the inclusion of Shawn Michaels's intro music for Mulgrew's goal is just perfection. He is one shexy boy.
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Wait...what? Did I miss this? I really, really hope Ronny played that after his goal. If not he should!
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Aye, not pulling your leg - you can hear it just kick in at this point in the highlights: https://youtu.be/xGi_indEal0?t=275
Was watching it on stream and did a double take. Was going to text my mate at the game but I convinced myself I was hearing things.
Sheer brilliance.