Ray McKinnon was delighted with his new men and others as Dundee United secured a place in tomorrow’s Irn Bru Cup fourth-round draw.
His Tangerines needed an extra-time winner from one of the new signings, Tony Andreu, to edge past Peterhead in a five-goal thriller.
With Andreu, William Edjenguele and Frank van der Struijk making debuts, and several others getting needed game time, the manager was satisfied.
As well as achieving the aim of still being in the cup at the end of the tie, he knows the workout will prove valuable.
“All the new guys need to build fitness, so I was delighted to get them game time,” he said.
“We had Paul Dixon back after he’d not played for a while and I thought he did great. Boys like Charlie Telfer, Blair Spittal and Luis Zwick all haven’t played much football recently.”
The focus, though, was on the new arrivals and Ray felt none of them let him down.
“Big William was outstanding. He came off in extra-time but it was only cramp and that was understandable. He’s a defender who knows how to defend and he showed that.
“Frank has done about four days training in the last three months but I thought he was excellent. He is going to be a super signing.
“And Tony was excellent as well. It was good for him, we know he’ll score goals.
“He could have had two or three and he’s going to be another great signing for us. I thought he was excellent.”
Contrary to suggestions it would be mainly a youth team line-up from United for this competition, Ray fielded a strong side.
There were still seven changes from the previous week’s Championship draw against Raith Rovers.
So, given those changes and the lack of game time many of his team had under their belts, he was satisified with the outcome.
“The main thing is we got through and I’m delighted with that.
“I thought it might have been more comfortable but I’m not going to disrespect Peterhead because they came here and scored two goals.
“But we kept passing and moving and we created a lot of chances.
“That was encouraging and now it is a matter of making sure we finish those chances off in the games to come.”
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