For Liam Fox, Saturday’s trip to Tynecastle must have felt like a particularly cruel exercise in testing the Dundee United coaching staff to breaking point and beyond. Call it a character building experience. A day when blow after thudding blow eventually saw the visitors crumple to the turf, their pride intact despite a defeat that left them stuck to the foot of the Scottish Premiership table.
That the 10 men of United eventually succumbed to the inevitable was no reflection on either their ability or Fox’s tactical masterplan. Because the rookie head coach, only handed the reins at Tannadice back in September, never really got a chance to see Plan A, B or even C in action on Saturday.
From losing selected starter Jamie McGrath in the warm-up to captain Ryan Edwards’ red card, then seeing McGrath’s outstanding replacement, Peter Pawlett, limp off early in the second half, it was quite a day for the brains trust in the away technical area. That they couldn’t quite hang on for a point is no disgrace. With a bit of luck, though, they might have left Edinburgh celebrating a famous victory.
United’s starting shape, a 5-4-1 that relied heavily on the excellent Steven Fletcher holding up the ball and linking play (see photo 1), caused Hearts – who lined up in a 3-1-4-2 – no end of problems in the early exchanges. And the opening goal inside 10 minutes came from clever exploiting of gaps in a stretched home back line, with the clever running of left wing-back Ilmari Niskanen enabling him to run onto a through ball and cross for Fletcher to score (photo 2).
Niskanen and Glenn Middleton seemed to take it in turns to exploit the right flank of Hearts (see photo 3), leaving Alan Forrest – hooked at half-time – and James Hill confused over who was responsible for what, exactly. Hill looked more comfortable in the middle (photo 4), where only his timing and bravery stopped Fletcher from sending Niskanen clear on a three-v-two breakaway.
The red card changed everything, of course. That and the introduction of Stephen Humphrys as Hearts switched up to a 4-4-2 in order to put pressure on United’s revamped 4-4-1 shape. The visitors actually managed to maintain some sort of press on Hearts, with Fletcher helped out by Craig Sibbald – moved wide right after Pawlett’s injury, with Arnaud Djoum moving into central midfield – and Middleton on the left (photo 5).
The Hearts equaliser, as you can see from the next screen shot (photo 6), simply shows what happens when a defending team runs out of bodies. United are literally a man short in this situation, meaning Sibbald is defending McKay one on one, with no cover in that wide open space. The Hearts winger’s deflected cross was put away by Lawrence Shankland.
While half-time sub Humphrys’ crowning moment of this game would come deep into injury time, incidentally, he deserves credit for his part in a truly spectacular team goal that put Hearts ahead for the first time in a long, cold, wet afternoon for the Gorgie faithful.
Credit goes initially to Jorge Grant, who had only been on the pitch for about 15 minutes, in managing to extricate himself from a tough spot in the right back position (photo 7). Who would have predicted a goal from that starting point?
After he played fellow sub Garang Kuol into space down the right, though, Humphrys took over by driving at the United defence – and continuing his run after finding McKay on the left (photo 8), allowing Alex Cochrane to exploit the space created. From there, McKay picked the perfect through ball (photo 9) and Cochrane applied a cool finish.
Finally, what can we say about the Beckham-esque strike by Humphrys deep into seven minutes of injury time? You can’t find notes on this in any coaching manual. But this shot (photo 10) might make a good “What happened next …” teaser for pub quizzes in years to come.
