TWO WEEKS can be a long time in football – and Tannadice is a far more optimistic place than it was a fortnight ago.
READ MORE: Dundee United 3-0 Livingston: Shankland makes it click for Mellon's men
At the end of January, Micky Mellon’s side lost at home to Hibernian to bookend a run of eight matches since Christmas without a victory. They’d scored the lowest number of goals in the league, alongside Ross County, and sloppy goals were beginning to become a feature of their normally solid defensive performances.
Saturday’s 3-0 win over Livingston lifted them back into the top-six and added to their impressive 2-0 win over Ross County in the Highlands the previous week. Beating a team above them and below them solidified what is a reasonable expectation for their first season back in the top-light – finishing as a mid-table outfit.
“I think it just kind of reinforced the win last week,” admitted United’s Mark Reynolds after Saturday’s win.
“We spoke before the Ross County game saying we need to get our act together and start playing properly and put what we’re doing in training into games. I think those two performances are the kind of standard that we need to be hitting every game.”
United lead within the minute at the weekend when Jamie Robson’s cut-back was finished high into the net by Adrian Sporle. They continued to make the match uncomfortable for Livingston and sought to progress the ball up the park with as few passes as possible to stretch the visiting back line.
Far too often this season, United have not carried an offensive threat which has puzzled fans due to their wealth of talent offensively. Mellon’s decision to field Louis Appere and Sporle as part of a front three with Lawrence Shankland gave the hosts the ability to hold the ball up or turn Livingston’s defence. Shankland looked every bit a top Premiership striker with support around him and would make it 2-0 not long after Peter Pawlett had been shown a red card for a late tackle on Jason Holt.
After substitute Ian Harkes stole the ball off of Holt, he slipped a ball into the path of the Scotland forward who in turn finished low past Max Stryjek. In the second half Jack Fitzwater received his marching orders for a lunge on Harkes and Shankland added a third, chopping inside his man and curling a shot deftly into the far corner to put the match beyond doubt.
“I think it’s up there {with the best we’ve played this season},” continued Reynolds whose side travel to Glasgow to face Rangers this weekend.
“We had some good results at the start of the season, and we’ve had good standalone results. I think these two maybe stand out more because we’re at the back of a few horrible results.
“I think at Ibrox you need everybody. You need the starting eleven to be absolutely flying. We know we’re in a huge game, but we just want to focus on ourselves. Shanks {Shankland} is scoring goals and I think to a man everyone is playing well.”
Two weeks ago, Livingston were still 14 matches unbeaten in all competitions and intent on keeping the momentum of that run intact ahead of their Betfred Cup final with St Johnstone this month.
But defeats to Saints and then United on Saturday paints a different picture. Josh Mullin knows his side need a positive result next week to ensure the highs Livingston have enjoyed this term aren’t engulfed by the lows of this poor form feeding into their cup final performance.
“We need to accept that today was nowhere near the standards that we’ve set for the last 14 weeks,” admitted Mullin.
“The cup final will take care of itself. Dundee United and St Johnstone was two cup finals if we’re serious about finishing in the top six. We’ve done far too much to squander it now.
“Our season has looked excellent for the last 14 weeks or so, but if we go to St Mirren and perform like that then we could be looking at the other end of the table. We’ll look to put it right there next week.”
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