Dundee Utd: Conway dedicates his winner to injured Daly

Published on Monday 13 April 2009 09:58

DUNDEE UNITED match- winner Craig Conway has vowed to be a good neighbour to Jon Daly after dedicating victory at Hamilton to the stricken striker.

Daly faces up to a year on the sidelines after suffering a double cruciate ligament tear just minutes into the 2-2 draw at home to Hibs on April 4.

It was his second major injury in two years at Tannadice, and Conway confirmed United and manager Craig Levein were desperate to beat Hamilton for the big frontman. Conway can expect to see more of Daly than anyone at United over the next year, having moved into the same street.

And after scoring the only goal at New Douglas Park, Conway said: "It was brilliant to get the win for Jon; the manager mentioned it before the game.

"He's such a great professional with a great attitude – he just keeps getting knocked down and doesn't seem to get wee knocks but major injuries, but he'll bounce back from this.

"It's brilliant to get this win and cheer him up a bit. He's one of my best mates in the team and I moved in next door to him three months ago. He's helped me a lot and he and his wife have cooked me dinner lots of times, so hopefully I'll return the favour now and help him out any way I can."

Conway scored his fifth goal of the season after just four minutes of Saturday's clash, heralding the start of an onslaught by the dominant visitors, who could easily have extended their advantage in a first half which they controlled entirely.

He said: "In the first half I thought we were brilliant, and we needed nothing but a win.

"We could probably have been up by three or four as we had some great chances and I don't think we've often created that many in a first half, and some of the saves their goalkeeper made were absolutely brilliant."

Striker Francisco Sandaza cut the ball back for Conway to convert – even though Hamilton boss Billy Reid was convinced it had gone out of play.

Conway said: "I didn't expect Francisco to keep the ball in but I got it and it crept in at the back post. This season the big thing for me has just been keeping fit because I've had a bit of trouble with injuries, so I just want to score as many as I can.

"We were trying to be positive at half-time because we had missed so many chances. Sometimes you can't help it coming into your mind when that's happened.

"The last time we were here (in the Scottish Cup], we were 1-0 up at half-time and they scored two quick goals, so it was good to keep a clean sheet in the second half especially. Lukasz Zaluska's save at the end was unbelievable when James McCarthy went through, but that's what he's there for and he's done it quite a lot of times this season."