Well, that was a big, big result and, yes, I did enjoy it.
Even some diehard Dundee United fans will admit that Arbroath deserved to win at Tannadice last Saturday.
I also imagine there were a few other teams in the Championship who expected us to drop points and were looking to take advantage. Sorry to disappoint…
It didn’t quite work out that way and we thoroughly deserved the three points, even if the injury-time at the end of the match seemed to go on forever.
To go to a place like Tannadice and beat the runaway leaders, who hadn’t lost a league game at home all season, is an achievement of which we at the club are rightly proud.
The gaffer Dick Campbell certainly enjoyed himself at the final whistle and who would begrudge him that?
He got his tactics absolutely spot-on.
I would also stress that I do not think for one second that United underestimated us. Robbie Neilson and his players are far too professional for that.
It was, instead, a case of our getting a good goal and then letting our game plan kick in.
It was terrific for both Craig Wighton and for Arbroath that he was the one to score.
Sometimes you can be slightly wary when you take a player on loan at such a crucial stage of the season.
You ask yourself: “Will they fit into the group?”
Not only has Craig done that but he has shown extremely quickly that he will work as hard as anybody in training and during games. His workrate is phenomenal and he doesn’t mind the “dirty” side of the game.
We always knew he had those qualities and his speed of thought was also a factor. I think where he put the ball for the goal against United was the only place possible.
He also gets into certain areas where he can hurt and stretch teams.
While that performance wasn’t about individuals but rather the whole team, it would be remiss of me to fail to mention the goalie Derek Gaston.
His save from close range off Lawrence Shankland was crucial to the outcome of the match but he also came – and took – every cross ball that was played into the box.
That is precisely what you want to see as a defender when the opposition is putting you under pressure.
In saying all of that, though, I would stress that the club’s aim for the season is still to secure our position in the Championship.
While it is nice to look at the league table and see yourselves in fifth spot, we are staying focused on the target we set ourselves at the start of the season: survival.
That doesn’t mean, though, that we won’t push and push to try to finish as high up the table as possible.
As a final thought on Saturday’s game, I was pretty impressed by the hundreds of United fans who stayed on after the final whistle to applaud our players as they went down the tunnel. That was great to see and credit to them for that.
