JIM GOODWIN | IF WE HAVE TO WIN UGLY SO BE IT

Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin spoke to the broadcast media to preview our William Hill Premiership clash with Aberdeen on Matchday 26.

The boss discussed readying his charges for a New Firm battle, taking it one game at a time as the split approaches and his newest additions adapting to life on Tayside.

Watch the full press conference below!

ON BATTLING THE ELEMENTS

We’re preparing for the game to go ahead. I’ve had good dialogue with the Chief Executive and the ground staff over at Tannadice. I know that they’ve been working tirelessly on the pitch over the last week or so to get the game on. As of now, at this moment in time, the pitch is in good condition and it’s playable. 

It’s really a strange pattern of weather that we’ve had here on the east coast. I live in Glasgow and I’m well used to the rain on the west coast. We’ve not had this lengthy spell of rain in my time at Dundee United. The last six weeks it’s been relentless and there’s been games postponed up and down the east coast of the country. 

Unfortunately, there’s not a great deal anyone can do about the weather.

We trained on Saturday with the game being off - we had a really good intense training session with the players. We tried to replicate what their workload would have been had the Spartans game went ahead. 

Fitness levels won’t be an issue. The boys have trained great all week. We’re really looking forward to the game tomorrow.

ON REIGNITING OUR TOP SIX HOPES

It’s a really important stage of the season for a lot of teams,  ourselves and Aberdeen included. We understand we’ve got a real task on our hands to try and get the top six now with the position that we’re in. 

Mathematically, it’s still possible. I believe that we’re capable of going on a run and getting the necessary points to put us in the mix for it. Aberdeen, no doubt, will be thinking along the same lines.

I think tomorrow is a must win for us if we’re going to try and force our way into that top six. Obviously we’re relying on other results going in our favour as well on the night.  We won’t give up and we certainly won’t stop trying, but we’re not deluded at the same time. 

It’s about getting back to winning ways for us - the run of form that we’re on hasn’t been good enough and there’s nobody trying to shy away from that. 

ON LEARNING FROM EASTER ROAD DISAPPOINTMENT AND GETTING BACK TO BASICS 

We’ve had a great reaction from the players off the back of the game at Easter Road last week - they’ve worked extremely hard. We’ve identified those areas that we need to get better at. If we can repeat the performance of the game against Hibs last week in terms of what we did on the ball and we can defend those key situations a bit better, then we give ourselves a great chance.

We have to do the basics well tomorrow night. Conditions might be difficult. The supporters, I’m sure at this stage, won’t really care how the team wins. If we have to win ugly then so be it. It’s up to myself, the staff and the players to make sure we do that.

ON OUR NEW ADDITIONS SETTLING IN AND WHAT TO EXPECT FROM EMMANUEL AGYEI

The new players have all come in and they’ve settled in brilliantly - it’s a great group to come into. There’s no big egos amongst them and they work hard on a daily basis. 

I’m sure tomorrow night you’ll see a bit of Emmanuel Agyei at some point. He’s trained really well this week and we can see the qualities that he’s going to bring to the group in terms of his competitiveness in the middle of the pitch but also his technical ability.

We’ve got such a busy schedule coming up and the whole squad is going to be required. It’s really important that all those players keep themselves right and be ready when the opportunity comes.

ON TEAM NEWS

Apart from Vicko Sevelj and Isaac Pappoe, the rest of the squad are in good spirits. However, Amar Fatah and Panutche Camará are suspended for tomorrow night.