YOUNG PLAYERS GIVE GROUNDS FOR OPTIMISM

Following Saturday's home defeat against Rangers, United Manager Alex Smith was in reflective mode and commenting: "We now have to try and pick up the pieces as quickly as possible. The Rangers result was disappointing. They were stronger than us on the day although I felt that we were unlucky to go two down just before half-time. We were hoping that during the interval we could reorganise and perhaps with a little luck get back into the game again, but with score at 0-2, we knew we had a huge mountain to climb. We are a young team and we need to gain this type of experience; we need to learn from this type of experience. And we need to be patient. But we must look to those teams nearer to us in the league and get the necessary points to climb up the League table, and then we can look to taking points from the Old Firm."

"Again, there are certain plusses for us to take and the performances of the younger players prove that they can handle the situation and that they have the temperament for the job. Outstanding were again Duff, Wilson and O'Donnell and to a slightly lesser extent David McCracken, who is also a very young player here. We have to continue working hard on the training field in order that we can get it right on the match day. It is only two weeks ago that we went to Aberdeen and won there convincingly. We have to take some comfort from that and take it into our match at Easter Road this Saturday."