Jim Goodwin rubbishes Raith Rovers rattled jibe as Dundee Utd boss tells Ian Murray 'I don't care' about ticket spat

Murray had suggested United were feeling the Championship title heat after they slashed Rovers' Tannadice allocation.

Jim Goodwin has rubbished Ian Murray’s claim Dundee United are rattled going into their top-of-the-table Championship clash with Raith Rovers.

Rival boss Murray made the claim after the Tannadice club refused to release more away tickets for Saturday’s top-two clash. United have a one-point advantage over Rovers. The Fifers have a game in hand but Goodwin has dismissed Murray’s claims his side are feeling the pressure.

The Dundee United boss said: “Definitely not, no. This is a game of football. There are a hell of a lot worse things happening in the world and, even in football terms, we are the ones sitting top of the table. The ticketing situation has absolutely nothing to do with me, and I couldn’t care if they got 500 tickets or 5000 tickets. It means nothing to me or my players. We focus on what we can affect in the game and what we need to do to get the result.

“We are very comfortable – we have some big players in our team. There’s a lot of experience in our squad – boys who have been there, done it and have handled these sort of situations before and we’ve just got to enjoy these moments. It’s great to be fighting for a title, exciting for everyone and we’ll be calm and focused going into Saturday.”

Rovers have had the better of the head-to-heads this season but that is something the United camp is keen to change. The overriding feeling is that we are really looking forward to it.” Goodwin said. “There hasn’t been a great deal in any of the games we’ve played and we certainly didn’t deserve to lose the last game we played.

“We just didn’t capitalise on the opportunities that came our way. We felt we would have won, and won quite comfortably. Then we get hit by a sucker-punch that, nine times out of 10, doesn’t even hit the target.

“We haven’t carried a great deal of luck in these games but we are very excited about this one. The boys look in a really good place and excitement is the key word.

“There’s a determination to give a good account of ourselves and we definitely feel that we are due a win in one of these games – because two defeats and a draw isn’t good enough. We have to make sure we come out on top on Saturday. It’s as simple as that.”

Liam Grimshaw was hooked at half-time in the draw with Inverness after his first half mistake gifted them their goal. Goodwin insisted it was a tactical change. The Tannadice gaffer said: “He was disappointed and he was disappointed in his part in the goal against us, and recognises it was a poor decision, but I’ve got a really good relationship with Grimmy.

“We felt in the second half that we would have lots of the ball – which is exactly how it panned out – and we used Glenn Middleton in that left-back area but almost playing as a winger.

“That allowed Miller (Thomson) to go back on to his right side and gave us more balance. Grimmy understands the reasoning behind the change I made.”