Dundee United’s Brian McLean is determined to force his way into boss Peter Houston’s reckoning for the glamour Europa League games against Dinamo Moscow.
The 27-year-old centre-half had his hands full on Saturday against fired-up Raith striker Brian Graham who scored what ultimately looked like being his side’s winner.
However, United equalised late on and then McLean had the last laugh just before the final whistle when he headed home the clincher.
Now, he is hoping he will win the nod against Dinamo on August 2 at Tannadice and a possible meeting with the Russian cracks’ top striker, German internationalist Kevin Kuranyi.
McLean said: ”The excitement is already building and European football is another dimension for me. I’m sure the fans will be looking to book trips to Moscow and I am really looking forward to it.
”I’ll be trying to find out a bit more about Dinamo in the next week or so. They apparently signed a boy last season for something like 19 million Euros which shows you just how big a side we will be facing.
“However, we played Everton a couple of nights ago and we did really well. We probably should have won the game. So it will be just 11 against 11 and anything could happen.
”We all want to play against the best players at the highest level like Dinamo’s German striker Kevin Kuranyi. The lads did really well last year to get us into the Europa League.
”It was one of the reasons for coming here and as long as I continue to work hard, I will hopefully give the manager something to think about.”
That manager had a lot of thinking to do on Saturday as his largely experimental selection struggled against First Division Raith.
Rovers had a chance as early as the fifth minute when Allan Walker played a one-two with the excellent Graham but the midfielder hit his shot too close to United stopper Radoslaw Cierzniak.
The closest the Tangerines came in the opening stages was when Barry Douglas forced Raith keeper David McGurn to produce an acrobatic save from his 25-yard free-kick.
Raith continued to have the better of the half without forcing further opportunities but the home fans only had to wait until four minutes after the restart to celebrate the breakthrough.
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Jason Thomson sent a long ball down the right into the path of Graham who held off McLean before producing an outstanding cool finish with the outside of his foot into the bottom corner of Cierzniak’s net.
Graham’s tail was up and he forced United’s Polish keeper into producing another fine stop which rebounded to Pat Clarke but the striker hit his effort over the bar.
United continued to struggle to fashion chances of their own, with the best coming on the hour mark when a Jon Daly header was tipped over by McGurn.
As the clock ticked down, the Raith fans had decided that their side had done enough to win with every pass being greeted with a chorus of ”Ole!”
However, those chants were brought to an end in the 86th minute when substitute John Rankin fired a deep cross ball from the United left into the Raith box towards another replacement, Keith Watson, who ghosted past the home defence to calmly slot beyond McGurn.
Then, right on 90 minutes, the travelling United fans were celebrating their side’s great escape when young Ryan Gauld took a corner kick which McLean headed home.
Despite the result, it is obvious United need to hone their sharpness before facing Dinamo but McLean is confident they will do so.
He said: ”We have about 10 days until our first game so there’s time to get things right. We’re gearing towards when the results actually matter which will be in early August.
”I think things are beginning to come together quite nicely. There are a lot of new faces here, including myself, and it’s all about gelling and getting to know each other.
”It was another good work-out. We stuck to our guns and managed to dig out a result which was pleasing.”
United boss Houston was keen to praise Raith’s contribution but made the point that at no time on Saturday did he play what he considers to be his first-choice XI.
He said: ”I thought Raith Rovers did really well. They could have scored another couple of goals before we got back into it so credit to them. We played exceptionally well against Everton and we decided to mix the team up again.
”We started slowly and it is difficult to change that. I don’t think we got anywhere near the level we can play at. At no time, though, did I have what I consider my best team on the field.
”However, it is another 90 minutes under the belts as we build for our game against Dinamo.”