Jim Goodwin said skipper Ross Graham epitomised Dundee United’s performance against Celtic as he bounced back in style from a calamitous end to last weekend’s derby.
The Tangerines were denied victory at Dens Park when their captain conceded a needless foul deep into stoppage time, then scored the own goal which saw Dundee salvage an unlikely point.
But lifelong United fan Graham impressed as the team beat Celtic at Tannadice for the second time this season. ‘Ross Graham was devastated last week,’ said the manager. ‘He doesn’t need told what that game means to the supporters. He’s one of them.
‘He’s been here since he was seven or eight. So, for him to be able to bounce back seven days later and put on a performance like that, it’s credit to him.
‘I’m really pleased for the players. We’re not getting carried away. It’s just another three points, but I’ve been very critical of them.
‘The players and myself have received a lot of criticism for the way we’ve managed games. Today, they deserve a huge amount of credit.’
Ross Graham put last weekend’s Dundee derby behind him by impressing against Celtic
United boss Jim Goodwin says the 2-0 win has kept alive their hopes of finishing in the top six
Midfielder Emmanuel Agyei turns away to celebrate scoring United’s second goal at Tannadice
The 2-0 win ensured United’s top-six hopes are still just about alive. Although Goodwin’s men would need to beat Rangers and Livingston, while hoping Falkirk lose their next two matches, the Irishman felt the display against Celtic should give them belief it can be done.
‘There is a real small glimmer of hope. We know we have to win our two games. We know Falkirk have to lose their next two. If we do it, it would be miraculous.
‘If we don’t, we’ll no doubt look back on this season with great regret. We have dropped so many points from leading positions and conceded so many late goals that, had we been able to manage those situations better, we’d probably be comfortably sitting fifth or sixth in the table.’
Having been denied the win over Dundee, Goodwin felt there was no disputing his team deserved to come out on top against Martin O’Neill’s title chasers.
‘Today we got what we deserved in terms of the end result. I thought we were the better team throughout. You know Celtic are going to have plenty of possession, but they never really carved us open. They had one big chance in the first half and the goalkeeper’s made a big save.
‘Other than that, we were comfortable in our shape. We tried to be aggressive at the top end of the pitch from restarts. We forced (Viljami) Sinisalo to go long quite regularly and my three centre-halves competed really well. Then, in the middle of the pitch, I thought Emmanuel Agyei and Vicko Sevelj were excellent.’
