Dundee United’s Paul Dixon admits he was stunned when he read in his morning paper that the club had snapped up Tony Andreu on transfer deadline day.
Tannadice boss Ray McKinnon had to beat off competition from five other clubs to bring the 28-year-old in on loan from Norwich last week.
And Andreu made an instant impact for United, netting what proved to be the extra-time winner in a five-goal thriller on Saturday against Peterhead in the IRN-BRU Challenge Cup.
It capped what had been a highly-promising debut for the Frenchman and with other new signings William Edjenguele and Frank van der Struijk also making promising first starts at the heart of the defence, Dixon believes there are reasons to be confident about the challenges that lie ahead this season.
He said: “I think you saw when Tony was on the ball that he is very sharp.
“He gets into wee pockets and he is a danger. He took his goal very well so we have to get him involved as much as possible and scoring goals as he did previously in Scotland.
“I was surprised when I found out he was coming here. I did not expect that one.
“It hit a certain point at night when I just shut off from the transfer deadline and it wasn’t until the morning that I found out in the paper that we had got him.
“It gives you a wee boost going into training that the manager is bringing in players of the calibre of Tony.
“I also thought the two boys at centre-half were good acquisitions.
“A lot of the boys won’t have seen Frank and William play but on today’s showing and in training, they are good players.
“Nick (van der Velden) spoke very highly of Frank when the boys asked him.
“They are good additions to the squad and there are plenty of places up for grabs.”
McKinnon made a whole raft of changes for Saturday’s game with Dixon making his first appearance since injuring his knee at Inverness in the League Cup in July.
When asked if the new-look squad will need time to gel, he said: “Yes, I think it will.
“There’s the two boys at centre-half brand-new to the team, me back after about five or six weeks without playing, Luis (Zwick) hasn’t played for a while, Charlie (Telfer) came in and obviously Tony, so there’s a few new faces there.
“So, it is going to take time but there were good signs. I thought we played a lot of great stuff at times.”
While delighted to get through to the next round of the cup, Dixon and United’s focus will now switch to important league business next Saturday when they travel to face Dunfermline.
With Hibs already seven points ahead of the Tangerines at the top of the Championship table, he is fully aware that they cannot allow that gap to widen any further.
He added: “We have had a win, two draws and a defeat so far so we want to get wins to build momentum and take us on through the season.
“It is very early in the season but you don’t want one team cruising away from the rest as it is hard to catch up.
“But if we can keep ourselves focused on what we have to do, get the three points on a Saturday and not worry about anybody else, then we will be fine.
“I think this season in periods of play throughout the games, you can see there is a lot of quality in this team.
“I think we just have to take our chances when they come and we need to make sure that when we are on top, we have to keep focused and not leave the back door open.
“But there are very positive signs and hopefully we can step on.”
United made a dream start on Saturday against Peterhead, opening the scoring inside the first minute with Telfer hitting a tremendous strike from 30 yards that gave Peterhead keeper Fraser Hobday no chance.
The League One side had rarely threatened but United were stunned in the 29th minute when Rory McAllister – who the Tangerines tried to sign earlier this summer – hit a low shot from 12 yards past Zwick and into the back of the net.
United’s lead was restored just five minutes later, when Van der Velden cut in from the left and fired a decisive drive past the helpless Hobday.
However, just seconds later, the Blue Toon drew level again. Former Dundee favourite Leighton McIntosh galloped down the right flank before sending a pinpoint cross into the United box with that man McAllister bulleting a header past Zwick to make it 2-2.
In the second 45, United continued to have the better chances and hit the woodwork no less than three times but the tie remained even and extra-time was required.
United finally netted what proved to be the winning goal in the 116th minute when Spittal crossed from the right with Andreu lurking six yards out to nod the ball home.
