Win over St Mirren the ‘best medicine’ for returning Dundee Utd boss Jim Goodwin
It was Goodwin’s first appearance in the dugout since a recent health scare, with Jesse Randall, Lyall Cameron and Kevin Ciubotaru all scoring.
Jim Goodwin hailed his side’s performance as the perfect tonic as Dundee United defeated St Mirren 3-0 in a one-sided contest in Paisley.
First-half goals from Jesse Randall, Lyall Cameron and Kevin Ciubotaru had the visitors well in control at the break, and they were unfortunate not to add to that lead in the second period.
It was Goodwin’s first appearance in the dugout since a recent health scare, and he praised his team for making it such an enjoyable return.
The United manager said: “On a personal note, it was great to be back. Certainly the best medicine that I could have hoped for was that type of result and performance.
“It was great to be on the touchline again. Obviously I missed the last three games, albeit I was still very much involved in terms of watching the game on the laptop and hooked up to the bench in terms of communication and trying to make the necessary changes.
“But there’s nothing like being out there close to the game and being able to speak to the players and things like that. So I’m pleased that I’m back and I couldn’t have asked for a better all-round performance from the players.”
United looked like they were set to go down to 10 men late in the first half when Daniel Bennie was shown a red card for a lunge on Ryan Carr, but VAR intervened and referee David Dickinson changed his decision to a booking.
Goodwin added: “It was a little bit surprised to see the red card initially. I thought it was a yellow card, I thought it was a professional foul trying to stop the opposition from counter-attacking on us.
“I’m pleased that VAR stepped in and David Dickinson was man enough to overturn his initial decision.”
St Mirren manager Craig McLeish admitted his team had been poor all across the pitch as they lost for a third league game in a row.
He said: “It’s a tough one to take because we’ve been so good up to this point. We let ourselves down today probably all across the pitch.
“I’ve said that to the boys, in this league it’s ruthless and you have to be at your best every single week. We had too many nowhere near the levels that they have set.
“It’s two home games where we’ve given teams two goals of a head start within the first 10 minutes and you’re not going to survive doing that. We did well to come back in the Motherwell game but you just can’t give yourself that mountain to climb every week.”