First Team
Match Report | Rangers 1-1 Dundee United
23rd November 2024
Dundee United's second string's delayed start to the season got off on the right footing with a thoroughly deserved victory at a sun-drenched Station Park, Forfar, this afternoon.
Hero for the Tangerines was sixteen-year-old David Goodwillie with a superb individual goal early in the second half, but the home side's margin of victory could have been far greater.
Neither side threatened in the opening half hour, but the Tangerines gradually took a grip on proceedings with Motherwell keeper Douglas Calder twice coming to his side's rescue shortly before the break.
First he finger-tipped a Jim McIntyre back-header past the post and then blocked a Stuart Duff drive with his feet as the midfielder drove in from the left.
Goodwillie's decisive strike came after fifty minutes when he collected the ball twenty yards inside the Motherwell half, slipped past a defender before surging in on goal and toe-poking the ball past the advancing keeper from the edge of the box.
Five minutes later Goodwillie combined well with Barry Callaghan on the right before cutting the ball back to Jim McIntyre whose effort drifted wide of the far post.
The nearest the visitors came to scoring was on 63 minutes when Adam Coakley bore in on goal, but United keeper Euan McLean blocked the Motherwell striker's low drive with his feet.
Twenty minutes from the end, United might well have added a second with an incisive move that saw Callaghan feed Goodwillie who fired the ball across field for David Robertson whose low shot was saved by Calder.
Dave Bowman commented after the match:
"Given that it was the first real competitive games for a lot of the lads plus the heat, it was understandable that we took a while to get into our stride.
"But we went on to totally dominate the game and thoroughly deserved to win.
"David Goodwillie demonstrated that when asked to step up a level that he can by scoring a tremendous goal."
United: McLean, Callaghan, Easton (Abbot 72), Dodds, McCracken, Gardiner, Cameron, Duff, McIntyre (Feeney 77), Robertson, Goodwillie (Burnett 90).
Subs not used: Gibson, Andreoni.
Motherwell: Calder, Keogh, Quinn, McLean, McDonald, Connelly, Smith, Grant, Coakley (Russell 81), Maguire (Gormely 81), Reynolds (B Donnelly 55). Sub not used: Alexiou.
Referee: Terry Brunton
Hero for the Tangerines was sixteen-year-old David Goodwillie with a superb individual goal early in the second half, but the home side's margin of victory could have been far greater.
Neither side threatened in the opening half hour, but the Tangerines gradually took a grip on proceedings with Motherwell keeper Douglas Calder twice coming to his side's rescue shortly before the break.
First he finger-tipped a Jim McIntyre back-header past the post and then blocked a Stuart Duff drive with his feet as the midfielder drove in from the left.
Goodwillie's decisive strike came after fifty minutes when he collected the ball twenty yards inside the Motherwell half, slipped past a defender before surging in on goal and toe-poking the ball past the advancing keeper from the edge of the box.
Five minutes later Goodwillie combined well with Barry Callaghan on the right before cutting the ball back to Jim McIntyre whose effort drifted wide of the far post.
The nearest the visitors came to scoring was on 63 minutes when Adam Coakley bore in on goal, but United keeper Euan McLean blocked the Motherwell striker's low drive with his feet.
Twenty minutes from the end, United might well have added a second with an incisive move that saw Callaghan feed Goodwillie who fired the ball across field for David Robertson whose low shot was saved by Calder.
Dave Bowman commented after the match:
"Given that it was the first real competitive games for a lot of the lads plus the heat, it was understandable that we took a while to get into our stride.
"But we went on to totally dominate the game and thoroughly deserved to win.
"David Goodwillie demonstrated that when asked to step up a level that he can by scoring a tremendous goal."
United: McLean, Callaghan, Easton (Abbot 72), Dodds, McCracken, Gardiner, Cameron, Duff, McIntyre (Feeney 77), Robertson, Goodwillie (Burnett 90).
Subs not used: Gibson, Andreoni.
Motherwell: Calder, Keogh, Quinn, McLean, McDonald, Connelly, Smith, Grant, Coakley (Russell 81), Maguire (Gormely 81), Reynolds (B Donnelly 55). Sub not used: Alexiou.
Referee: Terry Brunton
