Csaba Laszlo was delighted to lead Dundee United to the top of the Championship via an impressive win over Falkirk in his first league game in charge.
But the manager has warned his players — the hard work starts now.
United blew the Bairns away with three first-half goals and if they’d taken their chances after the break could have easily, at least, doubled that tally.
The win pushes them three points clear at the top of the table and for Csaba that means they are now the team everyone else in the league will be gunning for.
“The first that I hear in the dressing-room is ‘gaffer you know we are now top’,” he said.
“I talk to the players and I say now we have to work more, be more focused because everybody now wants to push you down.
“We have to keep this position but to do that you have to put in a lot of effort.”
Despite that warning, he did not hide how happy he was with the way his players had taken on board the changes he’d made in the 10 days between him taking over and Sunday’s game.
The result was a flowing performance that saw United dominate from start to finish.
Csaba said: “I think the first half was very strong performance from the team.
“The most important thing was the players understand in these 10 days what I want.
“I think we created a lot of chances, we dominate this game with the ball against the opponent.
“It only makes me a little bit sad that we have to score more goals, but this is maybe for the future.”
Most of all, Csaba admitted he was pleased the fans got the kind of football he wants them to see.
“I think the Arabs deserved to see this kind of football in his own stadium and he stood 90 minutes long behind us. That made the job for the players easier.
“To be honest I am happy because I saw that the fans and the players come a little bit together and that’s the point for me.”
United lost skipper Willo Flood to a dead leg at the interval.
The manager is confident, however, the Irishman will be ready for this weekend’s trip to basement boys Brechin City.
“We had to take Willo Flood off, but it was injury prevention more than an injury,” explained Csaba.
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