We spoke to Paul Simpson following our 2-2 draw with a strong St Mirren side.
“Yeah, pleased with the workout, that's the thing. We've got a load of good things out of it. There’s signs where we still need to work on things as well. Really pleased, great workout, great physical workout for us.
“I thought we showed some really good passages of play, it was good to score two goals, which we didn't do very often last year. But we just need to tighten up on things, which we know because there's three weeks to go until the start of the season and we'll just keep working on those. I thought tonight was a really good way to go and cap off a really strong week of work up in St Andrews.”
United battled hard for the result against a side which are ahead of us in their pre-season schedule.
“We wanted players to get 60 minutes because when they've done 45, you can get through with that ok. The 60, 65 minutes, you start to get that second wind and you start to get a bit of a burning feeling in your chest and they've got to get through that to benefit from it.
“I was disappointed with the first goal because I said at half-time we needed to work a bit harder to stop crosses because we had a little bit of a scare at the end of the first-half. I said we've got to work harder to stop crosses and we didn't do it.
“They get a good ball in and it's a good delivery and it's a good header from Olusanya, but I think we should have stopped it. The second one, I don't like that because the lad is free around the goalkeeper and we've worked on it and they say they're comfortable, but we can't afford to give things like that. I thought it was offside, but there's a possibility it was one of our players who headed it, so maybe that's why it wasn't offside.
“But there's things that we just need to keep working on and keep tightening up on and hopefully if we do, we’ll be ok.”
Harrison Neal opened the scoring with a very well-taken goal. Speaking on the midfielder’s strike, the gaffer said: “Yeah, very good finish. I thought it was a really good bit of football. I was wanting us to try and get a few passes in and try and get a little bit of control and we did. We kept the ball well, worked that little opening and it was a fantastic finish across the goalkeeper into the far corner and hopefully it's a first of many for Harrison.”
Terrell Thomas netted again this evening, his second of pre-season.
“It was a good delivery from Butts. We've got some good size in the box for a start, but we've just got a bit of desire to want to go and score.
“I was pleased with a lot of things. The lads who came on for the last 20-30 minutes brought a bit of enthusiasm, a bit of life about us, so it was good. It was a good workout for us and it was pleasing not to lose.”
During our clash in Paisley, we saw Georgie Kelly return to action on the 75-minute mark.
“Delighted, yeah. He's had a really strong week of work.
“We weren't going to risk him tonight because we've got a few people missing. We asked him and he was desperate to play and we said, look, even if we just get 15 minutes out of you, that'll give you a boost. So to do that, and you can see he's going to be a handful the way he goes about it, so hopefully we can just keep him out there.”
Paul then went on to update us on the absences of Jon Mellish, Cameron Harper and Sam Hetherington, he said: “Cammy's still got a bit of discomfort in the groin from the Workington game. The early part of the week he did lots of running, but the minute he starts trying to strike a ball and whip a football, he just feels a little nip there, so we weren't prepared to take any risks.
“Sam Hetherington has got a bit of fatigue in his hamstring. It's a big step up from what he's used to playing and what he's used to training with the YT boys to doing the physical work that the pros are doing, so he's just got a bit of fatigue.
“So we just took him out of training, I don't know if it was Wednesday afternoon or Thursday morning, just to make sure he's ok.
“Jon Mellish had to go home from St Andrews yesterday with a family issue. We were hoping he was going to be back today, but I spoke to him about lunchtime and he was still a little bit concerned. So for me, it's more important that he stays with his family, gets this resolved, and then he'll be back with us next week, hopefully.”
Touching on their week-long camp in St Andrews in further detail, Simpson added: “It was a really good week, a really good physical week, and I think that's the biggest thing that pleases me tonight, because I expected us to be more tired than we were. I didn't expect us to have the zip that we did, the way we pressed them, because it has been a very physical week. We've had some really hot weather.
“I've been so pleased with the attitude of the players, with the togetherness, with the work that we did with Mark Francis. The players really bought into it and I've been delighted with what I've seen so far
“It was more about communication. It was more about setting some goals for the season, more about getting them to understand what makes each other tick and what we need from each other.
“It was really important to get another voice in to facilitate those conversations and I thought they worked really well. But again, it would have been easy for the players to tell him to go and shove it, but they bought into it. They understood the importance of it.
“And who knows? It's the first bit of work he's done with the group this season. There'll be more work he'll do and hopefully we'll get the rewards.”
“I've been really pleased with the way Sam [Hetherington] has gone about it, Jake Allen and Freddie aswell.
“Fitzy [Aran Fitzpatrick], he's got something about him. I've just had to speak to him about some of the things he's done tonight because it's serious and he needs to just tighten up on some things. But if he does, I think there's a good footballer in there.”
We ended on everyone’s favourite topic - transfers.
“Nothing at the moment. Nothing imminent.
“I do want to bring a couple more into the group just to pad it out and give us more numbers because you can see tonight we're a little bit short on what we need to take us through to January anyway. So hopefully we'll be able to do it. As I said, we've got one coming in at the end of the month, when he comes back from their pre-season tour. Then it may be one, maybe two more to try and take it up to 25 in the squad.”
