Dundee United boss Robbie Neilson insisted his team answered a lot of questions as they beat Alloa 4-2 at Tannadice last night to edge to within three points of Championship leaders Ayr.
There were no less than five goals in the first half with United scoring three of them before the home side finally put the game to bed late in the second 45 when they netted their fourth.
And the United manager paid tribute to his players for the way they bounced back from going behind and then kept their nerve against a part-time side many expected them to beat easily.
Neilson said: “I said in the build-up that these games are harder than going to Ross County and next week against Ayr.
“You are turning up and you are expected to win but they come here and because they are expected not to win they have the freedom to play. That’s the difference.
“I thought the lads answered a lot of questions tonight.
“We went a goal down and previously we could have crumbled but we came back to 2-1 which was great.
“We went 3-1 ahead, then lost a goal quickly and you are thinking it could be squeaky bum time but we came out (in the second half), stood strong and got the goal that killed the game.
“Throughout the course of a league season there are going to be games like that.
“The most important thing is that you win. You are not going to play at your top level every week and this was one of those games where we didn’t but we still got three points.”
United skipper Fraser Fyvie was missing from the squad after suffering a hamstring strain against Ross County but Neilson insisted his absence was just a precautionary measure ahead of United’s crunch clash with Ayr a week on Friday.
He said: “Fraser trained yesterday at quite a high intensity but he was out for a long time with a knee injury so did we push him for the Alloa game or did we think we had enough in the squad to get us through? Thankfully we did.
“But he will be back for the Ayr game.”
