Kirk wants clinical United

28 February 2011 19:00

Dundee United first-team coach Gary Kirk has called on his players to start taking their chances to avoid chasing points in the latter stages of games.

United have drawn eight of their previous 12 Clydesdale Bank Premier League matches and have scored late equalisers in five of those. The latest was on Saturday against bottom club Hamilton when Andis Shala levelled in the 83rd minute after United missed a number of chances before conceding a penalty 12 minutes before the interval.

Kirk said: "Sometimes when you come back so late in the game it feels like winning. But we have to try to change these one points into three points and get in this top six."

He added: "We've got a hard week coming up next week and we can take the pressure off ourselves by starting winning."

United have three games in hand on Inverness, who sit two points above them in sixth place.

But they will soon hit a hectic fixture schedule to ease the backlog, which is sure to stretch their squad, with three games coming up in a seven-day period next week.

So there is some urgency to start turning their games in hand into victories as they bid to make the top six.

"There is pressure on every game," Kirk said. "There are no easy games in this league, everyone is fighting for the same thing.

"It's just about when the chances come along, putting the ball in the net.

"We did that last season, and made it easy for ourselves. But it's just not happening in front of goal yet this season, so hopefully it will change."

Source: PA