Dundee United’s B team are into the third round of the SPFL Trust Trophy after a penalty shootout victory over rivals Dundee B.
The Wee Derby saw 681 fans enjoy the sunshine at Tannadice but unfortunately the action didn’t match the weather with no goals to cheer as the two young sides played out a 0-0 draw.
The Tangerines fielded summer signings Richard Odada and Meshack Ubochioma while the Dee used senior men Harry Sharp and Luke Graham in their starting XI.
It was the home side who enjoyed the better of the opening half, though chances were few and far between.
Keir Gilligan’s low effort was the best opportunity of the first 45 after Ubochioma’s cut-back but his finish was comfortable for Sharp to deal with.
Odada and Ubochioma went off on the hour and shortly after Dundee had the chance to open the scoring.
Sub Ashton Leiper did well to steal the ball before setting up Jamie Richardson but his effort skewed wide.
Four minutes later Richardson had another opportunity after Marley Sweenie-Rowe’s cross but again got the finish wrong.
Those were the Dee chances to grab victory before penalties came around.
And it was United who handled the spot-kick pressure better by sticking away all three of their penalties, Lewis O’Donnell, Bryan Mwangi and Charlie Dewar all on target.
Lewis Lorimer stuck Dundee’s first away before Ruairidh Adams denied Richardson and Ross Clark and Luke Graham blazed over.
‘We can play better than that’
Despite ultimately claiming victory, United coach Brian Grant was looking for more from his young side.
He told Courier Sport: “I didn’t think we played particularly well over the 90 minutes.
“We lacked a bit of fluency and control of the game, and we didn’t move the ball quickly enough. We can play better than that.
“But the first objective was the get through to the next round and we’ve achieved that by winning a local derby.
“I wanted us to show more than we did, which is disappointing, but it’ll be a good experience for the players. It will be the first time some of them have played at Tannadice.”
‘Very disappointing’
Dundee coach Scott Robertson similarly expected more from his side as they suffered the same fate at the same stage as last season.
A year ago they were knocked out on penalties by East Fife after a 0-0 draw.
“Overall really disappointing. We didn’t show up in the first half,” Robertson said.
“United had all the ball in the first half. There was no instruction to sit off but we did.
“Second half we competed better, we got closer to them and forced mistakes. We had the chances to get ahead as well.
“Those are the moments that make the difference and sadly we couldn’t do that and it went to penalties.
“Overall, very disappointing.
“This competition is amazing for the boys to get a feel of what it really means.
“Being a knock-out competition, it is cruel but these boys got the chance to play at Tannadice against Dundee United in a real derby and treat it like that.
“And we had the chance to get through to the third round which we haven’t managed to do before – we got knocked out at the same stage last year on penalties as well.
“It’s frustrating we haven’t learned from that.”
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