Source: Team_Talk
Conway delighted to keep clean sheet
United had conceced seven goals in their previous two league outings, drawing 3-3 against the Saints and 4-4 against Kilmarnock, but defended stoutly throughout Saturday's McDiarmid Park clash.[LNB]David Goodwillie rattled in the only goal of the game off the underside of the crossbar on the stroke of half-time as United capitalised on their overall dominance of possession and chances created.[LNB]And Conway believes a return to basics at the back has helped restore belief ahead of Wednesday's home clash with Hamilton.[LNB]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.[LNB]"We did work on defending on Friday because we lost four goals in our last game and three goals in the game before.[LNB]"But we need to defend as a team and I thought we did that.[LNB]"The centre-halves did really well and big Jon Daly was coming back for set-pieces as well and everybody did their bit.[LNB]"This win will definitely help our confidence in the league.[LNB]"It was two games where we lost seven goals but our defending has been our strength in recent years, so we can put that down to a blip.[LNB]"We'll carry on doing what we're good at and that is defending well at set pieces and hopefully getting results."[LNB]Having been defeated at the same venue earlier in the season in the Co-operative Insurance Cup and having drawn with their hosts only 10 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.[LNB]He added: "The CIS Cup has been good to us but the Scottish Cup has been quite a hard cup for us in recent years.[LNB]"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."[LNB]St Johnstone manager Derek McInnes bemoaned his side's lack of spark after their midweek efforts in going down 2-0 to Rangers at Hampden.[LNB]However, he still felt keeper Graeme Smith had been impeded at Goodwillie's goal when Conway's corner caused consternation in a packed six-yard box and insisted with good justification that his team should have had a first-half penalty when Murray Davidson was blocked inside the box.[LNB]Substitute Peter MacDonald also wasted a glorious chance to equalise when he rounded visiting keeper Dusan Pernis but failed to get enough power on his shot and allowed Paul Dixon to block on the line.[LNB]An impressive United could have added a second in injury-time when David Robertson struck the bar with a powerful drive but even then Paul Sheerin was gifted a free header for Saints but lifted his effort over the bar.[LNB]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.[LNB]"But it's not about referees or anything like that today, I thought we just lacked that wee spark."[LNB][LNB] Dundee Utd 4/9, Draw 3/1, Hamilton 15/2
