Dundee United and Raith Rovers bosses relishing close Scottish Championship title race
- Published
Dundee United and Raith Rovers appear to be going head to head for the Scottish Championship title
Jim Goodwin believes Dundee United's defensive record is among the best in Europe. Yet the Tannadice mean machine are playing second fiddle to Raith Rovers in a thrilling Scottish Championship title chase.
That's why the United boss says his side will have to amass "a lot more points" than have won the league in the last couple of seasons if they're to topple the current leaders and make a quick return to the top flight.
Rovers boss Ian Murray, meanwhile, insists United remain title favourites because of a budget that "outguns anyone else in this division".
Not that Murray is daunted by the prospect. Far from it. He is confident his squad have "the character" to push United all the way.
At the halfway point in the season, United sit on 41 points - three adrift of the Kirkcaldy side but with a game in hand.
Match that for the second half of the season and both sides will top the 81 gathered by Rangers in winning the title in 2016.
While that would still be short of the record 91 amassed by Hearts a year earlier, it would be substantially more than Dundee's 63 last season and Kilmarnock's 67 the year before.
Goodwin, whose side have lost just one of their 18 league games, told BBC Scotland: "I would imagine it is going to take a lot more than that this season to get the job done.
"Of course we would love to be top of the league, but credit to Raith. We have a game in hand on them at the moment. If we were to win that game then we would go back on to the top of the table."
United have conceded a miserly seven goals in the league - the best defensive record of any team in the UK.
"I think you would be hard pushed to find another team out there in any league, in Europe, that has got a better defensive record - and scoring goals as well," Goodwin said. "So we are very pleased - satisfied with what we are doing right now."
While Goodwin would prefer to be setting the pace, he reckons the close title race shows "the high quality" of Scotland's second tier and "makes the whole thing more exciting and more entertaining for everybody to be a part of".
He thinks "there is more to come from the group" but expects United "to have at least one, possibly two, new faces in by the end of the month".
For his part, Murray admits: "We don't have a huge budget, but we do have scope because we have been really clever in the transfer market this season. But we won't just take anybody. The squad we have is good. If we run with what we've got then fine."
The Kirkcaldy side have made a habit of winning comebacks and scoring crucial late goals.
"It tells a lot about how hungry we are to succeed because a lot teams, when they have been in positions that we've been in, maybe wouldn't have had the results we have managed to pull off," Murray said.
"Dundee United were favourites at the start of the season and they are favourites midway through the season. But the belief in our squad is really high and our squad is littered with quality, particularly the forward areas.
"We always knew we were capable of how well we are doing, but being capable and then putting it on the pitch are two different things, so the players deserve a lot of credit."