Dundee United manager Peter Houston is playing it cool despite the club’s sluggish start to the season.
The Tangerines have taken just five points from five SPL matches, with their latest result a home defeat to newly-promoted Dunfermline.
Despite dominating the Pars for the vast majority of Saturday’s game and creating a pile of chances, they still could not muster a league win at Tannadice, having earlier drawn with Kilmarnock and St Mirren.
Houston revealed he didn’t even raise his voice in the wake of the weekend defeat and is keen to put the match into perspective.
“I would be a lot more worried if we were not creating chances,” he said. “I would also be concerned if we were not working hard.
“However, I said to the players after the game that they did work hard over the course of the game and were caught by a sucker punch, which could have been prevented.
“So I did not rant and rave at the players because they did not mean to get beat. They worked hard in the game but lacked a wee bit of quality in certain areas. The final ball was poor at times and the finishing was poor at times.
“We had so much of the possession but came up against a dogged Dunfermline team and let’s give them credit because they defended well. On another day, though, we would have won it.
“I think we will play worse in games and win them this season.”
A real plus for the Tangerines was the performance of new central defender Gavin Gunning. He slotted into the backline alongside Garry Kenneth, with Sean Dillon moving to right-back.
The former Blackburn Rovers man will go in again when United travel to St Johnstone on Saturday before heading off on international duty.
“I was delighted with his performance and there is more to come from him,” said Houston. “He was good on the ball and won most of his headers, albeit he was playing against a lone striker and will have other tests to come.
“He is off again with the Republic of Ireland under-21s next week so he isn’t getting much time to get to know his team-mates. The good thing for him is he will play for his country and getting match time will benefit him and us.”