Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin spoke to the broadcast media to preview our Scottish Cup clash with The Spartans.

The 44-year old insisted that he’s received a strong reaction from his playing group after a difficult evening at Easter Road, outlined what’s needed to ensure a successful afternoon when Dougie Samuel’s men pitch up in the City of Discovery and offered an update on team news.

Watch the full press conference below!

ON SEEING A POSITIVE REACTION FROM THE GROUP FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY’S DISAPPOINTMENT

The reaction and the response from the players is pretty much what I expected - a real determination to put things right from the other night. We had heated words in the dressing room after the game. There was a lot of emotion and a lot of anger with the manner in which we lost those goals late on. 

But they're a honest and young group of players who have to learn from those types of situations and learn how to manage games, and that will only come with experience. They have to understand that if you make mistakes and you lose concentration at the level that we're playing at in the league against such good opposition then you're going to get punished. 

They’ve been brilliant the last couple of days in training. We had analysed the game back yesterday and we had some good conversations around some of the issues that we felt led to the defeat. The players are all in agreement with what was said. I said some things after the game but I stand by what I said - we put that behind us now and we move on.

ON THE RISK AND REWARD OF GIVING YOUNG TALENTS AN OPPORTUNITY

Experience in those types of situations will help the players to grow and have a better understanding of how to manage the game in those situations in the future. That's all you can ask. We've got a very, very young team.

We had a young 19-year-old at centre-half at Easter Road the other night in Sam Cleall-Harding and he had a terrific game.

That's the risk that I'm willing to take because I need to get these young players experience of playing at that level. That's the only way they're going to develop and we want to give those young players an opportunity.

ON THE SPARTANS AND WHAT’S NEEDED TO ENSURE PROGRESSION

We move on from the game at Easter Road to a massive game against The Spartans in the Scottish Cup. That's where all of our focus has been over the last 48 hours.

The biggest incentive of the lot and the players are well aware of it is to get into the Quarter-Final of a major cup competition and one that we want to try and go far in. It's up to us to get the crowd up for it and to raise the atmosphere. The only way we can do that is by playing at a tempo and scoring goals. 

People on the outside will look at it and say the draw has been kind to us but inside we've prepared for this game the same we would if we were facing any of our opponents in the Premiership. 

We're not underestimating Spartans because they're having a terrific season in their own league - they've got momentum and confidence. They're used to winning games and they'll be coming to Tannadice tomorrow with absolutely no pressure. 

Some of their senior players have played at the highest level in Scotland and they've still got that technical ability. They may be at the latter stages of their careers, but we certainly won't underestimate them.

The players are well aware of what to expect. You have to do the basics well. You've got to compete. You've got to go out there with a positive mindset but you've got to outwork the opponent. If we do the basic things well then the technical quality that we have will shine through.

ON FOCUSING ON OUR STRENGTHS AND UTILISING A STRONG SQUAD

Our main focus, as always, is on Dundee United and what we can do to hurt the opposition. We're going to go with a strong starting XI tomorrow and we've got great options coming off the bench if we need.

This is a busy schedule for us as well with lots of games coming up now over the course of the next couple of weeks. It's going to take the whole squad to make sure we get the kind of results that we want in all of the upcoming fixtures.

ON REFLECTING ON THE SEASON SO FAR AND BEYOND

There's none of us happy with the position that we find ourselves in or the run of results that we've had in the league up to now. Last season was a fantastic one and we arguably exceeded expectations.

Any time you're below that type of position then it can look like you're not doing things properly. 18 months ago we were in the Championship. 18 months on we're disappointed that we're sitting in the position that we are in the league.

We've made great progress. There's none of us happy with the current situation but we know that if we stick together and we work hard that we'll turn the corner and get back to winning ways.

It's hard, especially after a game like Wednesday, to come out in the press and talk about what a good performance it was because a lot of the time nobody is interested in that. In particular, our supporters want to see their team winning games of football and sometimes they don't care whether it's an ugly 1-0 win or a fantastic 3 or 4-0 victory.

There's probably been three games in the whole league campaign where we haven't done enough in being competitive. In every other game we've been right in all of them. We've lost by the odd goal here and there. It's the dropped points from winning positions that is the biggest thing we can look back on with regret but we can't impact that now. 

We have to try and improve going forward and we've still got a lot to play for - there's always something at stake.

ON TEAM NEWS

Vicko Sevelj has made great progress. We would hope that he’ll be back in with the group after the weekend. Other than that, we've got no major injury concerns.

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