Dundee United

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Motherwell manager Stuart Kettlewell names an unchanged starting XI for the visit of Dundee United in Friday's Premier Sports Cup quarter-final at Fir Park.

But Blackburn Rovers loanee Jack Vale drops out the matchday squad after Saturday's 2-1 Scottish Premiership defeat in Aberdeen.

He is replaced on the bench with Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, while fellow forward Tony Watt is ineligible against his parent club.

Zach Robinson retains his starting place ahead of Moses Ebiye despite the latter's back-to-back goalscoring cameos off the bench.

Visiting manager Jim Goodwin opts to make one switch following Sunday's 1-0 home defeat by Rangers.

Club captain Ross Docherty comes into midfield, replacing Kevin Holt, as he did before half-time against the Glasgow side, with the latter dropping to the bench.

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

The first of two all-Premiership ties in the League Cup quarter-finals - and probably the least predictable - takes United to Motherwell on Friday evening in a meeting of two clubs looking to end a decades-long League Cup drought.

United have not lifted the League Cup since beating city rivals Dundee in the 1980 final, while Motherwell's wait is even longer, having last won the trophy back in 1950, when they defeated Hibernian.

Indeed, neither side have gone beyond the quarter-finals since they last progressed to the final.

Motherwell defeated Aberdeen 3-0 seven years ago, before knocking out Rangers in the semi-finals and falling short in their bid for an Old Firm double against Celtic.

Two years earlier, United beat Hibernian on penalties after a 3-3 draw, overcame Aberdeen in the last four but also lost to Celtic in the final.

Celtic were also Well's nemesis when the Lanarkshire side and United last reached the quarter-finals two years ago, the Glasgow visitors easing to a 4-0 win while the Tangerines were losing 2-1 in Kilmarnock.

The current sides go into Friday's quarter-final looking to recover from top-flight defeats that ended three-game winning runs.

Stuart Kettlewell's hosts fell 2-1 away to Aberdeen, while Jim Goodwin's United had their impressive eight-game unbeaten sequence brought to an end by Rangers' single-goal win at Tannadice.

Recent meetings are also no guide to Friday's outcome considering United have spent a season winning the Championship since losing 3-2 at Fir Park in their last meeting - with United having won there a month previously.

Their knockout meetings tend to be tight affairs too, with United winning 2-1 at Fir Park in the Scottish Cup fourth round in November 2014, while Alan Gow's goal was enough to take hosts Motherwell through to the League Cup semi-finals in October 2010.

Another close game is in prospect under the Fir Park lights.

Read all the League Cup picks

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Motherwell will be without on-loan Dundee United forward Tony Watt, who is ineligible to play against his parent club in the League Cup quarter-final tie.

The injured Shane Blaney, Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, Callum Slattery, Sam Nicholson, Harry Paton, Ross Callachan and Johnny Koutroumbis will also be out.

United boss Jim Goodwin has a full squad to choose from for the trip to Fir Park, with the exception of long-term absentee Ryan Strain.

Only two of this weekend's Scottish League Cup quarter-finals will have VAR in operation, with Motherwell v Dundee United on Friday and Aberdeen v Spartans on Saturday not using the technology and saving a combined £16,000 in the process. (Mail), external

Dundee, Hibernian, Kilmarnock, Motherwell, Ross County, St Johnstone and St Mirren will each take in £1.6m in solidarity payments due to Celtic's Champions League qualification, with Aberdeen and Dundee United receiving £1m and £650,000 going to Hearts and Livingston. (Mail), external

Read Friday's Scottish gossip

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Dundee United defender Declan Gallagher is braced for another hostile reception at Fir Park on Friday night but feels Motherwell fans' treatment of him is unfair.

Gallagher spent two years with the Steelmen before joining Aberdeen in summer 2021.

As he prepares to face Stuart Kettlewell's side in the League Cup quarter-finals, Gallagher said: "I am actually quite surprised that I get such a hostile view from them because when I was there we finished third, the Covid season, then I was captain the next year.

"A lot of things came out about my contract situation and stuff like that. But something that maybe fans don't know is that before I left Motherwell I signed an extension for one month so that Motherwell received the bonus money for me reaching the Euro squad with Scotland.

"I don't think was ever highlighted out there, so I think if a few Motherwell fans knew that was the case and I actually earned the club money rather than just taking money and leaving then they would maybe think differently.

"But that is football, people will have their opinion no matter what you do. I loved my time at Motherwell, I played in Europe for them, I captained them and I love the club as a whole, but I will be looking to try and put them out this week."

Gallagher has been in impressive form for United this season and he hopes if that continues he could force himself back into the Scotland fold and add to his nine caps.

The 33-year-old, who has not been called up since September 2022, said: "I think about Scotland all the time, I am choking for my 10th cap so if Steve Clarke wants to give me a phone I will happily answer that.

"I have never said I would retire from international football. If I play well for Dundee United like I did at Motherwell and St Mirren, I am sure I will maybe catch his eye again."

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

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Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin insists their weekend Premiership defeat to Rangers hasn't derailed the early-season optimism his team have been building.

A seventh-minute Tom Lawrence goal proved decisive as the Tangerines lost 1-0 at Tannadice on Sunday.

The result ended United's eight-game unbeaten run in all competitions.

Speaking before Friday's League Cup quarter-final trip to Motherwell, Goodwin said: "It certainly hasn’t derailed us in the slightest, we accept the mistakes we made in the game and we learn from them.

"I took responsibility for my part in that because the shape of the team and the system wasn’t working and we had to change it and we changed it pretty quickly.

"The players showed real quality in terms of character and tactical ability to be able to adapt to change the system. Now we have to try and start another unbeaten run on Friday night."

A semi final at Hampden is the prize on offer against Motherwell.

Goodwin says they are determined to secure a date at the national stadium to reward the United fans who have supported them through some difficult times in recent years.

"I have touched on that recently about how loyal the supporters have been," he added.

"They have stuck with the club through thick and thin, particularly off the back of the relegation. They are a credit to the club.

"There is an opportunity there to get to a semi-final, to get a day out at Hampden for our supporters, something that has not happened for a considerable period of time... so that is a huge incentive for us."

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Jim Goodwin has been speaking to the media before Dundee United's League Cup quarter-final at Motherwell on Friday night.

Here are the key lines from the United boss:

• The weekend defeat to Rangers "hasn't derailed us in the slightest" and Goodwin has challenged his side to "try and start another unbeaten run on Friday night".

• The United boss was "extremely disappointed" to see St Johnstone's Craig Levein become the first Premiership managerial casualty of the season.

• Goodwin is preparing for "a really difficult game" at Fir Park, saying both sides will have been happy when the draw was made and will view it as a winnable tie.

• The prize of a trip to Hampden in the semi-finals is a "huge incentive" and would be a great reward for the fans who have "stayed with the club through thick and thin" over the last few years.

• Goodwin praised the good form of Declan Gallagher, who he rates as "as good a centre-back as anybody in the league" when fully fit.

• Ryan Strain is the only absentee.

Tyrone Smith
BBC Sport Scotland Senior Reporter

Dundee United travelled well last season, losing just twice in 18 Championship games on the road.

Okay, it was in the second tier, but it is still an impressive record by anyone's standards.

The big question is – can United stave off the away-day blues this term in the top division?

A draw at Ross County and win at Hearts so far would suggest they can.

However, we will get a clearer picture on that front over the next few weeks.

Three of United's next four league games are on the road – at Kilmarnock, St Mirren and Aberdeen.

And their next fixture is a Friday night trip to play Motherwell in the League Cup quarter-finals.

If United can get through that lot relatively unscathed, then their fans can seriously start to dream that this campaign can really deliver something tangible.

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin reckons a fully fit Ross Docherty could be one of the best midfielders in the Scottish Premiership. (The Courier)

Read the rest of Wednesday's gossip.

Ronny Costello
Fan writer

Fresh off three wins in a row, the manager must have thought, 'If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.'

So he sent out the same starting XI for the fourth game running, hoping to stretch our unbeaten home run to 11 games, with six of those wins coming this season.

Seven minutes in, though, and we were already 1-0 down. Sure, it was a classy finish from Rangers, but we didn't exactly make it hard for them. It took us a good 20 minutes just to figure out how to string two passes together or, you know, actually do something. Definitely not the start we were hoping for.

Jim Goodwin made some early tweaks, shifting Luca Stephenson out wide and giving David Babunski the keys to the centre in a 4-3-3, ditching the 3-4-3 we've mostly been rocking this season. It worked to some degree, as we finally managed to put a bit of pressure on Rangers. But still, Jack Butland went untested.

Looking for a spark, we made a change just before half-time, bringing on Ross Docherty for Kevin Holt. At that point, we were desperately searching for, well, something. And to be fair, having the skipper back on the pitch did make a difference. Doc got on the ball more, started to dictate play for us.

We grew into the second half, but could we test Butland? Nope. Kristijan Trapanovski had a go but it was deflected wide, and Ross Graham's header slipped past the post.

When card-happy Don Robertson finally blew for full-time, it was hard not to feel disappointed. We had come up short after 90 minutes, and it stung, but the opening 20-25 minutes didn’t help.

As we sat recording the podcast post-match, it was obviously frustrating to think we couldn't be more clinical in front of goal. But the fact we were so disappointed to not get anything against a bang average, timewasting, taking the ball into the corner opposition shows just how far we've come over the last couple of years.

Anyway, on to the next one and the small matter of a place at Hampden up for grabs as we head to Motherwell in the Premier Sports Cup quarter-final on Friday night.

Ronny Costello can be found at The Dode Fox Podcast, external

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Ross Docherty is challenging his team-mates to rediscover their "winning mentality" as Dundee United eye a Premier Sports Cup semi-final place.

United's eight-game unbeaten run ended on Sunday with defeat to Rangers, and captain Docherty wants the side to "right the wrongs" in Friday night's quarter-final against Motherwell.

The midfielder, who played his part in last season's Championship-winning side, though he was hampered by injury, came off the bench in the first half against Rangers.

He believes Jim Goodwin's side have "a huge chance" to make the semis, which would constitute an "amazing start to the season".

"It’s a huge game and a huge chance to get to a semi-final, which would be amazing," the 31-year-old said.

"If we can get to the semi it would be an amazing start to the season, even with that Rangers defeat.

"We want to try and put the wrongs right, to try and improve and try to get through. We will look back on the game. We won't say well done we almost got a result. It’s not like that. We need to be better in the final third.

"Overall, the start we have made, you have to be proud."

United have seamlessly returned to the Scottish Premiership and sit fourth, just two points behind Rangers after the weekend's defeat, while only Celtic and Aberdeen have a better defensive record.

Docherty said the club built "a winning mentality" in their hard-fought title win last season.

"We knew it was win or bust to get this club back up," he added.

"We handled that pressure quite well despite some slight glitches. Ultimately, we got to where we wanted to be. You can see the winning mentality there."

Dundee United had been playing a counter-attacking system this season and they got some joy from it. Jim Goodwin decided to do that again against Rangers at home and tried to hit them on the break, but it just handed Rangers the initiative.

United could've maybe tested them more because of where Rangers were at mentally, but Rangers freed up and outnumbered them in wide areas.

Jim tweaked it to a back four and three in midfield. That didn't really get United in the game, but it nullified Rangers and that's what they had to do.

It was probably a chance missed, Goodwin said that himself. But you can understand why he started with that system because it's worked so well this season.

Former Dundee United striker Billy Dodds was talking to BBC Scotland's Nick McPheat.

We asked for your thoughts after Dundee United were beaten 1-0 by Rangers in the Scottish Premiership.

Here's what you had to say:

Ian: You can't concede as much possession in the opening 20-25 minutes and give the initiative away as we did. Jim Goodwin has to hold his hands up and say playing Kevin Holt in midfield and dropping far too deep and not pressing on Connor Barron was a mistake, credit to him though, once he changed it we looked a lot better.

Alasdair: With more belief, a break in their box and a stronger referee we might have taken something today. Goodwin made a good move changing formation early when it wasn't working, maybe we could've gone two up front earlier, but despite everything we're starting to establish ourselves in the division. Onwards and upwards.

Tom: No attempts on goal at Tannadice is simply not good enough for United, Jort van der Sande works hard but will never score a goal for us. Goodwin again forced into changing formation this happens in most matches. Coming after the international break is a good opportunity to freshen up the side, but no, we only make changes after conceding.

Colum: Undone by a poor start, but while we didn't threaten the Rangers goal as much as we would have liked, I never felt that Rangers were going to add a second. There were a huge number of bookings in what was a keenly fought game, but only two were really warranted. Positives for United is that we didn't look out of place.

Jim: In the first few minutes we had the chance to put the ball in the Rangers box it ended passed back and that was our tempo in first half. Second half there was a bit of pressure but never really threatened an average Rangers team, would have liked to have seen Richard Odada on at some point as he seems like a bit of a maverick.

Brain: The first 25 minutes beat us. A very soft goal, defenceless error gave their goal. Rangers were no better than us and we were unlucky in the second half not to equalise or even win the game. Such a pity though. Poor refereeing decisions.

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• Rangers have kept a clean sheet in three of their five games, only Celtic - with five - have done this more often in the Premiership this season.

• Tom Lawrence attempted five shots in this game, the highest total for a Rangers player in the Premiership this season.

• Declan Gallagher attempted 52 passes in this game, the highest total for a Dundee United player in the Premiership this season.

• Dundee United failed to attempt a shot on target in this game, it's the first time they failed to attempt a shot on target in a game in the Premiership since facing Rangers on 8 May 2022.

Watch highlights as Rangers beat Dundee United in the Scottish Premiership.

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Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin suggested his side did not do enough to threaten Rangers as their unbeaten run was ended by a 1-0 home defeat.

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Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin thought Rangers deserved their 1-0 win at Tannadice.

"I think we’re frustrated the unbeaten run has came to an end," he told BBC Scotland. "I don’t have too many arguments about the end result – Rangers created two or three goalscoring opportunities, whereas we didn’t create anything.

"In terms of the second half, we were a lot better and penned Rangers back for large periods of that, but for all the possession we had, we just didn’t create anything of real worth.

"Against the better teams, opportunities are limited and, when they come, you’ve got to be ruthless and get the ball in the back of the net.

"The real frustration comes from how we started the game – the shape wasn’t working and that comes from me.

"We had to change it and we went to a 4-3-3 and, from the moment we changed it, you could see an instant change. There was more aggression to our press, we forced Rangers into longer balls and turnovers. You could see the reaction from our fans, they stayed back to applaud the players after the effort they put into the game."

Goodwin hauled off holding midfielder Kevin Holt and replaced him with Ross Docherty before the break.

"There was no need for me to change the system prior to the game, but we've got that flexibility." he added.

"Kev has been outstanding in there and he's been a pivotal part of the unbeaten run we've been on, but I felt we were a bit light in the middle of the park and the goal comes from that, so we decided to bring in Docherty to sit on [Tom] Lawrence and give us more solidity in the middle.

"We did believe we could take something from the game – it hasn't panned out that way, but it would be far worse if we were a soft touch. I don’t think anyone could say we were that."

Clive Lindsay
BBC Sport Scotland

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Having lost all 11 of his previous meetings with Rangers as a manager, it was perhaps no surprise that Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin went into the game with the modest aim of finishing the day still ahead of the Ibrox side given he viewed this as their "toughest test" so far.

After three consecutive wins, Goodwin not surprisingly named the same side for a fourth game in a row as United sought to extend their unbeaten home run to 11 games - six this season.

The home manager was "not getting carried away" with that start and his caution seemed justified as Rangers dominated early proceedings.

However, bringing on Ross Docherty before the break and Vicko Sevelj at half-time changed the flow of the game as a disjointed Rangers struggled to shoot up the notorious Tannadice slope.

United, though, were unable to force goalkeeper Jack Butland into a serious save and will surely see this as an opportunity missed to take advantage of the first time they have gone into a game ahead of Rangers in the league since 1993.

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Dundee United's Jim Goodwin names an unchanged starting line-up for a fourth game in succession as they look to build on their 1-0 win away to Heart of Midlothian, but it is a different story for Rangers in Sunday's Scottish Premiership game at Tannadice.

Visiting manager Philippe Clement has been forced into two changes, and made one other alteration, with Vaclav Cerny having taken ill after his return from Czech Republic duty.

Fellow winger Rabbi Matondo had already been ruled out through injury.

Oscar Cortes, the on-loan Lens winger, makes his first appearance since picking up an injury in the opening-day draw with Hearts at the start of August.

Tom Lawrence and Kieran Dowell come into midfield as versatile defender Dujon Sterling drops to the bench following the 3-0 defeat by Celtic last time out.

Nedim Bajrami, the midfield signing from Sassuolo, and Neraysho Kasanwirjo, the defender on loan from Feyenoord, could make their debuts off the bench.

A Rangers supporter liaison officer statement has claimed Dundee United refused to allow a full stand tifo by visiting fans at Tannadice for Sunday's Scottish Premiership match. (The Herald On Sunday), external

Read Sunday's Scottish Gossip in full here.