Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin branded his side’s 4-0 loss at Tynecastle ’embarrassing’, but also admitted that the scoreline wasn’t entirely a fair reflection of the match.
In a fixture where the away side had won five of the last six prior to today, it was clear from early on that the trend wouldn’t continue.
Goodwin also admitted that the scorer of Hearts’ first goal, Tom Renaud is someone who had been on his radar prior to the midfielder arriving in Edinburgh, even if he said a deal to bring him to Dundee United was never close.
The Irishman was full of praise for Renaud and his goal, he said: “It’s a wonder goal from Tom Renaud from 40-yards, that can happen during the season.
He’s a player that we know well. Obviously, I spoke to him in the summer, we tried to bring him to Dundee United, so we knew the ability that the player has got from that type of situation.”
Dundee United went into the break 2-0 down, which led to Goodwin bringing on forward Zac Sapsford in place of Emmanuel Agyei, but this seemed to only further open the door for Hearts. Goodwin said: “We take off Agyei, who’s a defensive-minded midfielder, we bring on Sapsford and we spoke about the importance of the next goal, if we get it back to 2-1 then it’s game on again, and you know, we had two or three half chances at 2-0.
“Sapsford gets played through, he’s unfortunate he can’t get the ball out of his feet. We have another opportunity from a long throw but we weren’t able to capitalise on these situations. I think the difference between the two sides today was in the final third.
“Hindsight is a great thing, you know. Maybe we could have delayed making the decision, left Agyei on there. Hearts had two central midfielders in there as well, so we felt we could cope with that. We just thought at half-time we had to try and make changes that were going to get us back into the game.”
Left-back Will Ferry has been linked with a move away from the club, but Goodwin is adamant that the arrival of Rangers academy product Kevin Ciubotaru isn’t a compensation for any potential transfer. He said: “I think he’s very similar to Will Ferry in a lot of ways. We’ve rode our luck at times in the last couple of seasons without having a great deal of cover in that left-back area.
“I know obviously people will speculate, put two and two together and make up five, but he’s not coming in to be a Will Ferry replacement. We always needed a left back, it was the one area of the pitch we didn’t really have any cover in. I think we’ve got good strength in depth in all the other positions.
“Kevin’s a terrific young player. He;’s obviously been in Scotland before, he knows what the league entails and he feels he’s got a bit of unfinished business. So he’ll be pushing Will Ferry for the time he’s here. If something happens in the transfer window in the next few weeks, then we’ve got a really good replacement for him.”
United’s next fixture sees them host Celtic in the League Cup on Saturday, Goodwin acknowledged it’s a tough task, but is adamant his side still stands a chance, he said: “It’s an opportunity to get through to the quarter-final of the League Cup. The players know exactly what’s at stake. We’re not going to change in terms of approach to the game, in terms of how we want to be as a team. But certainly, we need to make better decisions in those big moments.
“It’s obviously going to take a bit of getting over this one. We’ll do what we always do in terms of our debrief tomorrow and then it’ll all be about preparing for the next one.”