Dundee United hope it proves a case of third time lucky as they renew hostilities with Motherwell on Saturday.
The Steelmen have won both meetings of the clubs this season, knocking the Tangerines out of the Premier Sports Cup at Fir Park before emerging victorious on Premiership duty at Tannadice in October.
Both contests were hard-fought and tight, with Stuart Kettlewell’s men ultimately prevailing 2-1
If United can gain some revenge in North Lanarkshire, they will open a five-point lead in fourth spot.
Courier Sport looks ahead to the fixture.
Team news
United could welcome back Kristijan Trapanovski following five weeks out due to a hamstring strain. Ross Docherty is back in training, but Goodwin has vowed not to rush the Tannadice skipper, who last featured on October 5, back into action.
Will Ferry will be a notable absentee after his sixth booking of the season triggered a one-match suspension.
For Motherwell, Paul McGinn, Callum Slattery, Jack Vale, Ross Callachan, Tom Sparrow and Zach Robinson are all sidelined, while Stephen O’Donnell could be in contention to start after returning to the bench at the weekend.
Tony Watt is ineligible to face his parent club and Steelmen boss Stuart Kettlewell will serve a one-game touchline ban after accumulating four yellow cards.
What Jim Goodwin said:
“We know Motherwell well enough, given we’ve already played against them a couple of times this season.
“We’ve found ourselves on the wrong end of both results unfortunately but we are going into this game with a lot of confidence; unbeaten in our last five games.
“The aim is to go to Motherwell, give a good account of ourselves and make sure we are on the right side of the result this time.
“Our performances in both games against Motherwell this season have been very good. The only criticism is we lacked a bit of ruthlessness and, added to that, shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times.
“But we are going into this game in a better place than we were going into the last one (against Motherwell).”
Head-to-head at Fir Park (last 5 fixtures)
20/09/24: Motherwell 2-1 Dundee United (Robinson 45, Miller pen 90; Moult 83)
28/05/23: Motherwell 3-2 Dundee United (van Veen 5, Spittal 69, Johnston 82; McGrath pen 31, Fletcher 49)
15/04/23: Motherwell 1-2 Dundee United (van Veen 22; Niskanen 63, McGrath pen 71)
03/09/22: Motherwell 0-0 Dundee United
30/11/21: Motherwell 1-0 Dundee United (Watt 12)
Who is the referee?
Nick Walsh will take charge of the clash in North Lanarkshire.
He has overseen one United fixture this term – the Tangerines’ 1-0 win against Hearts at Tynecastle – and has dished out SIX red cards in 19 games, including two in Ajax’s 3-0 Europa League win over Qarabag.
Most recently, Walsh dismissed Hibs’ Jordan Obita in Dundee’s 4-1 triumph against the capital club at Dens Park.
Walsh will be assisted by Alastair Mather and Alastair Taylor, with Greg Aitken serving as VAR.
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