Football: Craig Conway glad as Dundee United front up

Published on Monday 8 February 2010 10:17

DUNDEE UNITED winger Craig Conway reckons a return to defensive solidity in their 1-0 Scottish Cup win over St Johnstone can act as a springboard to league success.

The Tannadice outfit faced their Tayside rivals on the back of losing seven goals in their previous two SPL outings. Peter Houston's side had gained points in both matches but the 3-3 draw with Saints and the 4-4 scoreline against Kilmarnock betrayed underlying problems and allowed Hibs to leapfrog them into third place in the table.

However, the Tangerines defended stoutly throughout his McDiarmid Park clash and were rarely troubled by a home team still suffering a hangover from their midweek Co-operative Insurance Cup semi-final defeat to Rangers.

David Goodwillie rattled in the only goal of the game off the underside of the crossbar on the stroke of half-time.

And Conway believes a return to basics at the back has helped restore belief ahead of Wednesday's home clash with Hamilton. He said: "I don't think they created any clear-cut chances and I thought we defended really well, so that was pleasing, especially after losing seven goals in the last two games.

"We did work on defending on Friday because we lost four goals in our last game and three goals in the game before. But we need to defend as a team and I thought we did that. This win will definitely help our confidence in the league."

Having been defeated at the same venue earlier in the season in the Co-operative Insurance Cup and having drawn with their hosts only ten days ago, Conway insisted United – who wore black armbands in support of coach Gary Kirk, whose father Bobby, the former Hearts player, died last week – were just happy to be in Wednesday's quarter-final draw.

He added: "The Scottish Cup has been quite a hard cup for us in recent years. We've also struggled against St Johnstone, so the boys were delighted to get the win. It's hard place to come and we're through to the next round."

St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes insisted with good justification that his team should have had a first-half penalty when Murray Davidson was blocked inside the box.

McInnes said: "I thought it was a stonewall penalty. For me, he was taken out and Murray was still getting to the ball, it wasn't as if it was out of play or whatever. It was frustrating. But it's not about referees or anything like that, I thought we just lacked that wee spark."