Dundee United can be unstoppable- Nadir Ciftci

Nadir Ciftci celebrates his second goal with Gary Mackay-Steven (left) and Paul Paton (right). Picture: SNS

Turkish striker Ciftci scored twice in United’s crushing 5-0 win at the Caledonian Stadiumover an Inverness side who finished the afternoon with nine men following the dismissals of Greg Tansey and Marley Watkins.

United are back on song after a mid-season slump and will approach next month’s semi-final at Ibrox in buoyant mood.

“If we do what we are good at, I think we are unstoppable,” said Ciftci. “We have shown that already this season. We had a wee dip in form but we have come back from that and I think we are playing very well.

“For sure we are confident we can win the cup. We are confident about the next round but we have loads of games coming up and hopefully we can keep playing as we are at the moment. There is more to come from this team. This is the first season we have all been together and I think if we get used to each other even more, there is more to come.”

United’s performance and result yesterday helped the Tannadice club banish memories of their League Cup quarter-final defeat at Inverness last October, which saw Ciftci sent off and later accused of grabbing linesman Gavin Harris by the throat. The 22-year-old was later found guilty of a reduced charge and insisted he had no hard feelings towards Harris, who was also on duty yesterday.

“That’s gone and is in the past,” added Ciftci. “We just treated this as another game and we knew, if we did the things we are taught to do, we would win. Of course you think about it, the League Cup game here, but it’s gone and you have to think about what is happening now. I wasn’t bothered that it was the same assistant referee. We shook hands after the game and that’s it.”

United manager Jackie McNamara was left purring with satisfaction at the manner in which his team handled a potentially difficult assignment and insisted the red cards issued to Inverness players should not take the shine off the performance.

“The way Inverness set up we knew they were going to make it a battle and it was important that we matched that,” he said.

“I don’t think any decisions have affected the outcome. It was a difficult pitch but the passing and moving caused them problems. When we do things at pace, with one and two touch, it causes most teams problems.”