30/11/2024 – DUNDEE UTD (A)

Well, that was tough to take.

It was a stuffy match, with few real opportunities, similar to all our games against Dundee Utd so far this campaign in truth. Our former 2013 League Cup winning captain and manager Jim Goodwin has stated multiple times after our games against his ‘Terrors’ this season that the first goal was likely to produce the winner, and so it proved again.

However, on this occasion it must be stated that Dundee Utd were not responsible for beating Saints on Saturday, and that’s probably as far as we can go on that matter.

The opening goal and defining moment of the match came from the penalty spot with just over 10 minutes remaining. Referee, Matthew McDermid, was standing 2 yards away as Marcus Fraser and Kevin Holt challenged for a bouncing loose ball in the penalty area and waved ‘play on’ as Saints cleared.

To be kind to Mr McDermid, decision making is not his strong point, and after looking at a request to review his decision on VAR, he decided to change his mind and give a penalty. TV has since shown us what happened, with 4 ex-professional players stating unequivocally it wasn’t a penalty and 2 even suggested it was a foul to St Mirren.

One thing is certain, it most definitely isn’t clear who made a foul if at all, and both players have raised feet with the United player showing his studs. The rules on VAR are however supposed to be transparent; it needs to be a “clear and obvious” mistake to overturn an original decision, and there is no way the original decision to ‘play on’ is a clear mistake or an error.

To compound Saints misery, another penalty was awarded in injury time to the home side, when Louis Moult tumbled to the ground following a tangle with Fraser. Again, replays would show it isn’t clear who is actually making the decisive foul, and when Mr McDermid was asked to review the decision, the expectation was the decision would be overturned.

Incredibly however, the referee sent off Marcus Fraser!

These are not the sort of things within a game that we want to talk about, but it’s impossible when so many happen in one match, including a knee high tackle early in the match on Toyosi Olusanya by the Dundee Utd goalkeeper, Sam Walton, that was absurdly in our view not deemed dangerous after the 5 second long VAR review for a red card.

All of this leads us to our first point we learned from the weekend, although it’s probably not new, VAR IS NOT DOING WHAT IT IS SUPPOSED TO DO.

However, as far as our own performance went, we undoubtedly could have created more chances, which was very frustrating as we seemed to win the midfield battle and many other duels over the park.

Credit to Dundee Utd however, and our former player Declan Gallagher in particular, who defended incredibly well throughout the match, especially during a frantic period in the first half when Saints had the home side pinned back for a long spell.

A lot of our good play in the opening half came via our wing backs, with an ever improving Elvis Bwomono impressing once more as he continues to give Stephen Robinson a nice little dilemma for January with the club looking to strengthen in defence.

This leads us to our next point from the match, ELVIS IS NOT ALL SHOOK UP, and could very well be the long term solution to the right wing back slot in the team. With young Callum Penman playing extremely well for the youth side, perhaps the manager can look elsewhere in the squad for strengthening and allow Bwomono a deserved extended period in the starting XI, with the youngster backing him up? It’s surely a consideration for Stephen based on the last few weeks.

It is not a disaster being defeated, of course. The team has played very well over the past month or so, and didn’t play badly at all yesterday. This loss shouldn’t affect confidence in our opinion, in fact the players should remind themselves that it took something pretty extraordinary to beat them on Saturday that was outwith their control completely.

This is the conclusion we are taking from the match, and look forward to a demanding December following this great squad of players.

We would like to finish this week however on a high, and back with young Callum Penman and his young team-mates in the youth side. It seems we have a very special group of players currently in this area, being led by a club legend in Stephen McGinn, and it is very difficult not to be be excited by this.

The 3-0 victory over Hearts in the Youth Cup during the week in Edinburgh pushed Saints to the quarter finals in the national competition at this level, an achievement that should not be underestimated as the Jambos put substantially more resources into their youth set up than we do, yet the victory was emphatic and deserved.

Evan Mooney grabbed a hat-trick, a youngster who has already made his first team debut this season. He’s a wonderful talent, and hopefully more debuts will follow from this group of young players.

Saints had a prolific 2010’s in terms of developing first team players, with Stephen McGinn, Kenny McLean, Jack Baird, Lewis Morgan, John McGinn, Kyle McAllister, Jason Naismith, Sean Kelly and Kyle Magennis for example, playing hundreds of matches between them.

We’ve lost a number of great prospects to England in recent years but the next crop of youngsters are gearing up to challenge for first team places, the way it should always be at Saints. THE FUTUE IS VERY BRIGHT.

COYS!

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Dundee Utd Players of the Match:

5 points – Elvis Bwomono

3 points – Mark O’Hara

1 point – Richard Taylor