Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin spoke to the broadcast media to preview our William Hill Premiership clash with Celtic on Matchday 31.

The boss discussed bouncing back from Dens disappointment, facing Martin O’Neill’s relentless Celtic side and getting a head-start on summer recruitment.

Watch the full press conference below!

ON DERBY FRUSTRATION

Look, the reaction was a good one from the players. They were all obviously hurting, as you would imagine, for a couple of days after the result. But we have to be professional and we can't dwell on what's been. 

It was very hard to talk about positives in the immediate aftermath of the game because of the fashion that we dropped the points with the two late goals. But when the dust settles and you actually do analyse the game, we played ever so well for 90 minutes. 

It's probably the best we've played for a number of weeks. We created so many good chances and I think it was the most shots on target we've had all season.

We ran into John McCracken at the wrong time. He was in great form and made four or five very good saves. We should have been out of sight and comfortably have won the game. 

But ultimately, we've only got ourselves to blame. We didn't manage that last period well enough and that fragility that we have had in the team all season has cost us again unfortunately.

ON GAME MANAGEMENT

It's not about pointing fingers. At the end of the day, we're all in this together.  On the day before the game, we'd done two dozen crosses into the box in all manner of different situations, whether it's corners, wide free kicks and from open play. Of those two dozen balls that come in, the opposition doesn't score. 

So we train and we work on those situations but it's very hard to replicate the pressures of a match day when the opposition is throwing everything at you in the dying moments.

We have to learn how to manage those situations better. It's not the first time - we've dropped points from winning positions all season and that's why we find ourselves sitting in the bottom half of the table and not in the top.

Between now and the end of the season, we need to rectify that. We've got eight games still to go and we want to learn from those mistakes that we've made, show that we are taking the message on board and that we're managing those situations better. 

Hopefully, going into the summer and coming into next season, we're in a far better position for it.

ON ROSS GRAHAM’S REACTION

Ross is a strong character. He understands he's made a mistake at the weekend but for 90 minutes he was outstanding - unfortunately all anyone is speaking about is that own goal. 

It can happen to anybody. I've been in that position myself far too many times as a player! There's an element of embarrassment within it but also major disappointment. There's nobody in our squad that needs to be told what that particular fixture means to our supporters. 

All of Ross' family and friends are the United supporters and he has come through the academy - it probably hurts him even more than anybody else. 

Of course, after the game he's extremely disappointed and angry but this week his response and reaction has been really positive. We can't afford to dwell on the past, we just have to focus on the next game.

ON FINDING MOTIVATION FOR THE RUN-IN

I don't think it should be difficult to motivate players at the end of the day. They're getting well paid to do a job that they love doing and we've got a supporters base that will expect nothing less than 100% every time they cross that white line. 

There's always something at stake for players, management teams and supporters. We want to try and finish as high up the table as possible. Top six now after the results at the weekend is going to make it even more challenging than what it was before, but we won't stop fighting until it's mathematically impossible.

Stranger things have happened in this game. It would mean that we'd have to win all three of our next games and obviously rely on Falkirk not picking up a point. These things can happen in football and while that's still the case, we'll keep on fighting. 

Players have got contracts to play for and there's a World Cup just around the corner. There's always something on the line and nothing more so than personal pride.

ON CELTIC’S IMPROVEMENT UNDER MARTIN O’NEILL

We're looking forward to it. I said to the players if we can replicate the performance that we put in last Sunday, then we'll give ourselves a really good chance of picking up a positive result. 

We know what's at stake for both teams and in particular what's at stake for Celtic in terms of the challenge that they're trying to mount against Hearts and Rangers to go and win the title. 

You could argue there's a bit more pressure on the Celtic players than there is on mine but we're the home team. We had a really good performance and result against Celtic the last time we played them at Tanadice and we have to take confidence from that one into this one.

They're a very good team with lots of international quality players and the most experienced manager in the league, supported by two very good young coaches in Mark Fotheringham and Shaun Maloney.

When we beat them at Tannadice it was under Wilfred Nancy playing a different system. Now obviously Martin O'Neill has went back to the more familiar 4-3-3 and we faced that at Parkhead - they gave us a really difficult time of it. 

We've got to take the learnings from Parkhead, we've got to take a bit of confidence from the game at Tannadice and we've certainly got to build on the good moments that we showed in the game against Dundee. If we can bring all that together then we give ourselves a chance of picking up a positive result.

ON TEAM NEWS

We picked up a few little knocks in the derby on Sunday. Craig Sibbald comes back into the squad after an absence over the last few weeks, Luca Stephenson should be fine and Kristijan Trapanovski picked up a slight knock on his knee a couple of weeks ago which will keep him out of this weekend.

ON CRAIG SIBBALD’S EVENTUAL DEPARTURE

He's been a pleasure for me to work alongside in the three years that I've been here. He's been pretty much a mainstay in the team during that period but Craig has got a real emotional connection to Falkirk - it's where it all began for him. 

He's well within his rights to explore his options at this stage of the season. We did make an offer to him but he felt that the lure of going back to his hometown team was too much to turn down so we respect his decision. 

He's still a Dundee United player up until the end of the season and knowing Craig like I do, the professional that he is, he'll give his all for us in that period.

ON OUR GROWING AUSTRALIAN CONTINGENT

We've been working hard behind the scenes - we're going to have a busy summer window and it's important that we're planning and preparing for that in the meantime. We've got a couple of good deals done up to now with Jesse Randall and Lachlan Rose over the line.

We're talking to a few more as well regarding pre-contracts and we want to make sure come pre-season that we've got a really strong squad to go and attack next campaign.

It's obviously a market that we follow closely. The A-League is broadcast live now in the UK at the weekends and I watch a lot of the football on Saturday and Sunday mornings and the standard is really good. 

Over the last ten years there's been a significant investment in the A-League and the quality of players that are available over there fits within our structure in terms of the financial side of things. The Aussie players that I've worked with in the past have all been really strong characters, very professional. 

There's a number of Australian players in the Scottish Premiership at the moment who are currently performing very well. Those players from Australia, New Zealand, they want the opportunity to come to Europe to raise their profile and to see where it takes them. 

We're really pleased with the business that we've done up to now and we'll continue to look in every market, not just Australia, all across Europe and in the UK.

ON AMAR FATAH’S SPARKLING LOAN STINT

He's a terrific young talent. Amar had a couple of loans prior to coming to Dundee United that weren’t particularly successful so I think he appreciates the opportunity that we gave him here at Tannadice

He knows how much I trust him and how much I believe in him. He's grown as an individual but I think he's also developed as a player for the opportunity that he's had. I hope next season, when he's got a decision to make regarding where his future lies, I hope that we will be a part of that conversation. 

We've got a good relationship with the City group and those discussions are ongoing. Amar wants to finish the season strongly, get his numbers up in terms of goals and assists and if he does that I'm sure he'll have a number of options come the summer.

Hopefully given what we've done for him here at United and how well he's been looked after, he might want to return.

ON SEASON TICKET SALES 

As a business we rely on season ticket sales and what happens commercially - things like that have all got an impact on what budgets look like.

In the three years that I've been here, the supporters have been incredible - they've continuously got behind the team. We know how frustrated and disappointed they are with the way the league campaign has went this time around especially off the back of such a successful season last year.

A lot of what we have done here during my time has been positive but I understand as well in the modern day that what’s happened over the past couple of years can be very quickly forgotten, it's about the here and now.

As a club I think we've certainly put the club back on a more even keel financially - we're in a far healthier position now than what we possibly were three or four years ago. 

We're all on the same page in terms of the recruitment strategy, we've reduced the average age of the squad and our player trading model has already come into fruition this year with the sale of Nikolaj Moller in January.

Like any football club out there you rely on the backing of the supporters to buy their season tickets, to buy their jerseys and to get behind the team. With their support hopefully we can have a strong finish to this campaign and look forward to a really positive campaign next season.

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