Dundee United boss Peter Houston wants his side to find their shooting boots against Hearts on Saturday after drawing a blank in their last two SPL games.
United followed up a goalless draw with St Johnstone with another stalemate against Ross County on Friday night and the Tannadice manager is keen to avoid a repeat when John McGlynn’s men come calling.
”I really don’t have a lot of complaints with the players their effort is fantastic and we’ve got four clean sheets out of five games,” said Houston.
”What we have to do now is work on the other side and try and score more because we’ve had a couple of zero-zeros in the last couple of games and obviously the Kilmarnock game was a disappointment.
”I thought the two guys up front caused Ross County problems and worked really hard but what we can work on in training is making sure they are in the box more.
”Their effort and their enthusiasm is fantastic but they have to think a wee bit more about the game when we’re attacking. If one of them sees the other one out of the box, the other has to get into the box.
”We need to get midfield players into the box as well Stuarty Armstrong can get there, Ranks (John Rankin) and Willo (Flood) I asked to hold a wee bit because I thought they would play five in the middle, but Dowser (Ryan Dow) did well as well.
”So there’s plenty of work to be done on the training ground but I’ve no complaints with the players. They’ve stepped up the pace, their tempo and their ability to pass, which I always knew was there anyway.
”They passed the ball well and the crowd were appreciative of some of the moves we made but they were frustrated we didn’t win.”
Houston also felt United missed the presence of skipper Jon Daly up front against County, although he is hopeful the big striker will recover from his knee injury before the two-week estimate given by doctors.
He said: ”Jonny’s a strong character I wouldn’t be surprise if Jonny came back before it. I know it will need to be sore if he’s not that’s the type of character Daly is.
”Once the bone bruising settles down it won’t take Jonny long to get back up to speed because he works hard in the gym.
”He always strengthens his knees because he’s doing leg weights and that kind of stuff. But that’s just me hoping. We’re short of numbers squad-wise so it’s always a concern.
“Daly has brought on Russell and he brought on Goodwillie before that and it shows how good a player he is. I think he sometimes didn’t get the recognition he deserves, but we can’t whinge about not having Daly here.
”These things happen in football and you have to get on with what you’ve got.”
Meanwhile, Houston has revealed his hope Milos Lacny will be available for selection sooner rather than later.
The Slovakian, on loan from Sparta Prague, has been out for some time with a troublesome knee injury and Houston added: ”One day he comes in and he looks good and he’s training hard with the boys and the next day he’s swelled up a wee bit.
”Milos is not training with us, he’s still with the physio, so you can imagine there’s still a wee bit to go. At the end of next month ask me, because I’d like to be in the position that he was fit but I honestly can’t say for certain or definite that he’s going to be ready at that time.