Managers post Dundee United

26/08/00: post match comments from Jimmy Calderwood and Dundee United Manager Alex Smith

Dunfermline Manager Jimmy Calderwood`s after match comments:

"I think we started the game very very well. The first 25 minutes there was only one team in it with the passing and a lot of movement. We changed it about a little bit giving Junior a free role from the left to right hand side and put big Mossy up front. I think it was working well but we didn`t get the breakthrough.

"Dundee United were always going to be dangerous in dead ball situations with the height they have got. The chances if they created any came from us losing the ball in midfield, taking too many chances and we didn`t need to do that. I was well pleased with the first 25 minutes and then we went for route one.

"Mossy was 3rd or 4th choice - you know if you`ve got the ball and Stevie Crawford, to Junior and to wee Barry are the choices; they should have been first when we wanted to play the ball on the deck. We started playing long balls and Moss was winning everything so we let it go a little bit. We lost a bit of control but then Crawford goes and produces the goal just before half time.

"Psychologically it was obviously a great moment for us. We warned them last time - we got a penalty just before half time; we warned them first five minutes to get it sorted out and the game got a bit sloppy with our passing giving the ball away. We got to grips again and I thought there was only one team in it. We couldn`t get the second goal. A great move down the right hand side was worthy of a goal. The goalkeeper saved it with his backside in the end and just couldn`t get the second goal to finish them off.

"Teams at this level will keep battling. The last 15 minutes we just couldn`t get out of our own half. It was all hands on deck. I think it was a deserved victory, it was so important - it gives us a 7 point difference over Dundee United.

"They are down at the bottom at the moment albeit they have a game in hand. It`s a nice little cushion at the moment and hopefully we can take 8 points from the next 6 games and we`ll be well pleased.

"Stevie Crawford is looking very sharp, it was a great goal but that is the quality he has got. I don`t think we should forget wee Barry. He just knocked it in, good vision from wee Barry, good pace on the ball and Stevie`s done the rest, but that is the quality and we`re so glad to have him here with us.

"Barry Nicholson did well today, he looked a good player. It is very difficult to come away from Rangers because with all respect to our players, you are playing with lesser players. Players are moving are Rangers and you`ve always got options, not only one but you`ve got three or four. So it took a wee bit of time for him, but at Motherwell the other week there he had a tremendous game second half. I think we`ll need to forget the Rangers game; none of us were there really and today I thought he was our best man. Great passer, good vision. For his size he is also quite good in the air. Well pleased.

"I said last week after the Rangers game we were very very disappointed by the way we played, well we didn`t play; because we turned up. We had to recover this week. OK people were disappointed we only beat East Stirling 1-0 but we are in the next round of the CIS cup against Motherwell and somebody just told me that we are fourth top of the league. So we`ll better go and take a photo of teletext and go and have a drink."

Dundee United manager, Alex Smith`s after match comments:

"I felt that the goal, just before half time was bad defending from our point of view. It gave them the lift at the time in the game when you want to come in even stevens and have a go at them in the second half. As it was they scored and got a little lift from the crowd.

"Despite that the first 20 minutes of the second half I thought we dominated it then Dunfermline came back into it for about quarter of an hour and we had to defend again. Last period of the game we put pressure on but couldn`t get a break. The goalkeeper had a couple of good saves and we had a couple of good scoring chances.

"We worked hard. I thought the game was between two evenly matched teams. Really the goal was the difference. We were much better than we were last Saturday. We came back, we battled we scratched to try and get the game back again. At the point where Dunfermline scored the goal we were actually on top. We had weathered the early Dunfermline pressure; they`d had one flashing header; the goalkeeper hadn`t had a save. We hadn`t tested their keeper either - it was a game like that.

"The goal should have been avoided from our point of view. Crawford took it well enough but we shouldn`t get turned in the box.

"I was quite pleased with new signing Tchami, he`ll be a big asset. He needs games, he needs fitness. He is from a different culture and has a different mentality, he battles for the ball and he is strong. I thought he was a wee bit unfortunate to be booked - he had to take as much as he got. He is a good player he has got ability. We could have played him into it in the first half one of the times when we broke 2 on 1 against them but the young lad`s inexperience tried a chip and that was a big opportunity wasted.

"We`ll keep working, we`ll keep building. Apart from that lapse at the goal I was much happier with the players at the back. We`ll keep looking to strengthen the side in the area we feel need strengthened. We won`t be sitting back thinking that we are going to work our way out of the position we are in. It`s early doors yet, we have only played 5 games and if we keep working we`ll turn the corner. We have got money behind to bring in players if necessary."

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• 26/08/00: Dunfermline 1 Dundee United 0