Signing of striker Billy King crowns great few days at Dundee United

Dundee United completed three very good days’ work today when they clinched the signing of striker Billy King.

The 22-year-old has put his signature on a pre-contract agreement that will become a two-year deal at the start of July.

The Hearts striker’s switch follows news yesterday that Hibs front man James Keatings is also going to be a Tangerine for the next two years.

And, of course, sandwiched between those bits of business was an excellent 2-1 victory at Morton in the Premiership play-off quarter-final first leg at Morton.

That win makes Ray McKinnon’s men strong favourites to progress when the tie concludes at Tannadice tomorrow night.

If that is the way things pan out, it will set up a semi-final clash with Falkirk on Tuesday and Friday next week, with this time the first leg being the home one.

Delighted as he was with a second-half performance last night that saw his men storm back from a goal down to seal a vital victory, the manager is not taking progress to the next stage for granted.

“Morton are a very strong team and we’ll have to play well to make sure we go through,” he said.

“But we believe with our good record at Tannadice and the crowd behind us, we can do it.

“If we play like we did in the second half we’ll certainly give ourselves a very good chance.

“We were disappointing in the first half, but we changed things at half-time.

“That got Simon Murray and Tony Andreu into the game and allowed us to put pressure on the Morton defence.”

Six minutes into the second half it was Murray who cancelled out Thomas O’Ware’s early opener with a spectacular strike.

And 25 minutes from the end, Blair Spittal got the winner after another fine move.

The quality of those efforts left the manager smiling.

“They were good goals and credit to all the players because I thought they took a grip of the game.”

Friday’s return leg is all-ticket and briefs are now on general sale from the ticket office at Tannadice.