DUNDEE United manager Jim Goodwin bemoaned his players’ failure to put in a ‘cynical foul’ on Tom Lawrence before the Rangers playmaker scored what ultimately proved to be the winning goal at Tannadice today.
But Goodwin, whose team suffered their first William Hill Premiership defeat since returning to the top flight due to the early Lawrence strike, admitted he was pleased with the way his charges fought back after falling behind.
He revealed that abandoning the 3-4-3 formation which has worked well for the Championship champions in the 2024/25 campaign and going to a back four had helped them to get a foothold in the game.
“Obviously we didn't start well,” the Irishman said. “The shape of the team wasn't working early on. I think that's where the goal ultimately comes from. We were a little bit bare in the middle of the pitch.
“But the frustrating thing is that it actually comes from our throw-in initially. We need to make a tackle at some point, whether it's a cynical foul or something like that, to prevent Lawrence from entering into the penalty box. That's the disappointment. “Whenever you play against Celtic or Rangers, you always speak about the first 15 minutes and staying in the game. We gave ourselves a bit of a mountain to climb from that moment onwards.
“But when we changed the shape I thought we did a lot better. We put [Ross] Docherty in there just to protect the centre-backs. We were able to then press the game that little bit higher and be a bit more aggressive.”
Goodwin added: “I can't have any complaints or arguments about the end result. We were a lot better in the second half, I thought. But with all the possession that we did have, we didn't really create anything of real worth. “So we are disappointed, but can't be too hard on the players in terms of what they put into the game. I suppose it could have been quite easy for heads to go down, conceding such an early goal.
“It's disappointing to lose our unbeaten run here. But we've got another massive game coming up [against Motherwell] on Friday evening in the quarter-final of the cup to get ourselves prepared for.”
