Barry Douglas has warned that Dundee United will be in Scottish Cup trouble if they suffer from slow-start syndrome once again.
The Tangerines have been busy bemusing their fans and themselves by falling behind in games on a regular basis this season.
Sometimes they have been able to recover but on other occasions like Tuesday’s home defeat to Motherwell they have left themselves with too much work to do.
It is a serious problem for the club and defender Douglas insists they will need to race out of the traps at Stair Park on Saturday when they meet Stranraer in the fourth round if they want to make progress in the tournament they won in 2010.
”It has been the story of our season,” said Douglas.
”We don’t know why it is happening but we need to try and rectify it before the season gets any longer.
”I wouldn’t say it’s a mental problem. We are just slow in coming out of the blocks, for whatever reason.
”We need to find a solution. I wouldn’t say it will ruin our season but we are leaving ourselves too many uphill tasks by giving goals away.
”When we go behind, that’s when we start playing.
”There are no issues in training or anything. We are training well and warming up perfectly for games.
”I wouldn’t even say it is because of team selection because regardless of which team has played, it seems to be happening.
”Morale is good. It is nothing to do with team spirit. It just appears to be something of a hoodoo just now.
”So perhaps we need to get together as a unit to talk about it, maybe hold a team meeting.
”We go to Stranraer on Saturday and we know how lower-league teams look at these cup-ties. It will be like a final to them.
”We must do our job properly and that means not making another slow start.
”I have played there a few times with Queen’s Park and it’s a tough place to go to, especially if you go behind, so we must try to avoid that happening.
”We have to show we are switched on and start correctly. It is a cup game so anyone can beat anybody else. We need to worry about ourselves and go about things the right way.”
Meanwhile, honours were deservedly even at Glebe Park, Brechin, in yesterday’s Under-20 Clydesdale Bank Youth League clash betwen United and Aberdeen.
Aberdeen broke the deadlock midway through the first half when Kieran Gibbons fired into the bottom left-hand corner.
The visitors’ lead was short-lived, as two minutes later Jordan Moore powered his way through before a defender’s attempted clearance rebounded off the striker into the corner of the net from 18 yards.
United almost nicked it with 11 minutes left when Dale Hilson was played in by Moore, but failed to hit the target when well placed.
United finished the match with 10 men, Ryan Gauld coming off three minutes from the end after all three subs had been utilised.