From the beginning of the season I’ve thought that Dundee United could maintain the sort of consistency that eludes most bottom-half Premiership clubs and that would keep them out of trouble.
The consistency I was thinking of wasn’t a goal-less draw every week, though!
There is a real conflict in assessing United right now.
You look at the stats and the performance from the 0-0 draw at St Johnstone on Saturday and it’s pretty poor.
But they picked up a point and are sitting nicely in sixth spot in the table.
That’s more than acceptable for a team just recently returning to top-flight football.
The lack of attacking threat, despite having the likes of Lawrence Shankland, Marc McNulty and Nicky Clark on the pitch is a worry.
No shots on target again is very concerning. But, not playing well, United picked up another point.
And a third clean sheet on the bounce will be great for the defence.
Despite not winning the games, Mark Reynolds, Mark Connolly and Ryan Edwards will have been buzzing after the last two defensive showings.
I remember when Craig Levein first came in at Tannadice and set about sorting out our defence.
There are similarities to what Micky Mellon is doing now.
At times we were absolutely murder to watch but we’d come away with a 0-0 having not played well.
As a defender I loved that.
At the same time, I knew plenty of strikers who had a good moan at the rest of us for a lack of service.
In fact, there weren’t many I played with that didn’t enjoy a good moan, even at the best of times!
As much as the defence will be pleased with shutouts, we could see Shankland in particular getting frustrated.
You want to see that from your strikers when they aren’t getting the ball in dangerous areas.
Up to a point anyway.
What you don’t want is for that frustration to grow into a negative and you get an unhappy player.
Mellon, though, to be fair to him has recognised where the team needs to improve.
He’s been working hard on getting the defence right and cutting out the mistakes which have cost them.
Get that right and there is a platform to build from.
Overall, I think the Tangerines are in a pretty good place right now.
Performances might not be great but they are picking up results and sit sixth.
Looking further down the line, they also have players like Chris Mochrie impressing out on loan. If he, and others out at lower league clubs, can return improved players then they’ll add to the first team options later in the season.
The defence is solid, they have quality attackers and good youngsters.
Find a way to knit that all together and United will be in a very good place.
Saturday was the perfect reply for Dundee after their opening day horror show at Hearts.
Firing in an early goal from Jonathan Afolabi and seeing out the game with Morton pressing will have done the players and their confidence wonders.
It is still very early in the season but the Dark Blues needed a reply after the 6-2 defeat.
Fans also needed something to get behind as well to get them believing in their team’s chances again.
Getting another win this weekend at home to Raith and following up with a result at Alloa will send out a message to the rest of the division.
There will have been a few seeing the 6-2 defeat and thinking that despite the top players in the Dundee team, they were beatable.
Stick a few wins together, though, and there will be far more doubts in the minds of the opposition before they take on the Dark Blues.
There is a chance to stamp some authority on the division that would have looked unlikely after the full-time whistle at Tynecastle.
Raith, though, have started really well and won’t be an easy task for James McPake’s men.
If players like Charlie Adam, Graham Dorrans and a number of others are firing on all cylinders, Dundee will find their way past Rovers.
I’m looking forward to it, though, should be an entertaining watch.
Very quickly there is a vulnerability about Celtic we’ve not seen in a long, long time.
Neil Lennon’s side have been really struggling since the Rangers defeat and you can see by the goals they are conceding that something isn’t right in the team.
Even their dominant players are showing weakness we don’t often see.
The goals conceded at the moment aren’t typical ones for Celtic to let in.
Teams now see the Hoops as beatable where not long ago they were all-conquering.
It’s a big week for Lennon.
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