JIM GOODWIN | IT'S A HUGE TIME IN THE SEASON

Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin shared his pre-match thoughts ahead of this evening’s William Hill Premiership clash with Hibernian on Matchday 25.

The boss reflected on a frustrating evening under the Tannadice lights, discussed the qualities he expects his new international arrivals to bring and underlines the necessity to put a run of consecutives wins together, starting in Leith.

Watch the full interview below!

ON SATURDAY'S VAR FRUSTRATION

We all watched the game back and analysed the main talking points in the game - I stand by what I said post-match in my interviews. The Amar Fatah one is not a red card as far as I'm concerned. There's no intent there and it's certainly not a dangerous tackle.

He's overreached to play a ball, he’s probably half a second late and unfortunately his foot stands on the foot-ankle area of the Hearts player. I thought the on-field decision from the referee was the right one at the time. I've since heard the VAR conversation between the referee and the studio and the referee said pretty much what we all think.

It's a little bit reckless but that's it and by the letter of the law that should be a yellow card and Amar stays on the pitch.

The Pan Camara one, the more I watch it back the more angry I get by the whole decision. There's no excessive force and not even any head-to-head contact - it certainly can't be deemed a headbutt. I thought that should have been looked at and overturned. You could give him a yellow card for needlessly getting involved in the skirmish that was going on.

The two red cards had a huge influence on the game. It's hard enough playing against the league leaders with 11 players but to play for the length of time we did with 10 and then for the last 20 minutes with nine, it was always going to be that outcome, unfortunately.

ON THE CAPTURES OF EMMANUEL AGYEI AND JESSE RANDALL

We’re really delighted to get Emmanuel Agyei signed late on in the window. He's a really athletic midfielder, left-sided and very aggressive. 

He competes really well in the middle of the pitch and it's an area that we've had injuries in throughout the course of the season. For the last few weeks, Vicko Sevelj has been out and we’ve also had injuries in the wing-back position where Luca Stephenson has had to fill in.

It was an area of the squad that we didn't want to leave ourselves short in and I think Emmanuel will add real strength and depth in that particular area.

Jesse's having a great season in the A-League with Auckland. He's one that we've been monitoring since the start of the season and to finally get terms agreed on a pre-contract, I think it's a great bit of business from the club.

We can all see the impact that Zac Sapsford's had on the club and we would expect Jesse to do the same.

ON POTENTIAL OUTGOING BUSINESS

It depends on what kind of offers come in. As a manager, you're always quite selfish in terms of wanting to keep that strength in depth in the squad but at the same time, you've got to be fair to one or two individuals as well who have not had the kind of game time that they would have hoped for.

Then within all of that, we've got a player trading model that we want to be successful. If there's offers that come in for some of our players in these leagues that remain open and we feel that it's in the best interests of the club, then that's what we'll do.

ON OUR PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS WITH THE HIBEES

Last time out at Easter Road, we should have won the game - I think we're all in agreement with that. We had a mistake in the goal, unfortunately, that led to one of the Hibs goals and then we had a penalty decision given against us that we got an apology for the following week!

I think if we perform to that level like we did there last time, then we'll give ourselves a great chance.

But we have to recognise the fact that Hibs are obviously a good team, they’re really dangerous on the break with the pace that they have in the forward areas and they've strengthened their squad again in the window as well. 

They've brought three really good players in yesterday and it'll be interesting to see what their starting XI looks like. We know a couple of the players that they've brought in already and they're good, talented players. 

We've obviously got an analysis platform that we use where we can watch the players back from their previous clubs, but where they fit into Hibs' structure, we'll just have to wait and see. 

Our focus has always got to be on ourselves and where we think we can cause Hibs problems. We'll always respect the opposition but we've shown in the last couple of games against them that we can cause them problems ourselves and that's what we aim to do.

ON STRINGING RESULTS TOGETHER AS THE SPLIT EDGES CLOSER

It's a huge time in the season for us and one thing we haven't done all season is put a run of victories together. There's been a number of teams in and around us lately in the last maybe six or seven weeks that have managed to do that and we have to believe that we're capable of doing the same. 

There's enough quality in this squad for us to go on a run of three or four victories but we're running out of time now at this stage and we can't afford to be dropping too many points between now and the split if we want to be serious about forcing our way into that top six.

We know how difficult that's going to be because we recognise the quality of the teams above us. Falkirk are having a brilliant season, Motherwell have been outstanding and then the other four teams in the top six I don't suppose would be a great surprise to anyone but while we're still in the fight we'll keep going, that's for sure.

ON TEAM NEWS

Everybody's fit apart from Vicko and obviously Isaac Pappoe is the long-term one.

We would expect Vicko to join back in with the group next week and be fit and available for selection the following weekend. But other than that, everybody's good.