First Team
TEAM NEWS | PARTICK THISTLE (H)
3rd May 2024
DUNDEE UNITED 2 (HEENAN, MOORE)
HAMILTON ACADEMICAL 1 (O.G)
CINCH RESERVE LEAGUE
16:30 TUESDAY 4TH APRIL
GUSSIE PARK
Dundee United B hosted Hamilton Academical at Gussie Park as their cinch Reserve League campaign continued in the spring sunshine on Tayside.
Line-Up
Both teams fielded relatively youthful and inexperienced sides, with Mathew Cudjoe, Sadat Anaku and Kai Fotheringham a handful of notable absentees for the hosts.
22-year-old defender Ross Graham was the only player named in the starting XI who has started more than one first-team match for the Terrors.
Forfar Athletic loanee Adam Hutchinson was deployed in an unfamiliar midfield role alongside Finn Robson and Lewis O’Donnell, with the latter continuing to break himself back into stride following a lengthy spell on the sidelines.
Young Terrors top scorer Stuart Heenan played off the right, with Bryan Mwangi on the opposite wing, both instructed to invert close to lone striker Miller Thomson when building from the back.
With Accies’ first team in action against Raith Rovers this evening in the cinch Championship, they had to dip into their U18s squad to complete their line-up.
Former Scunthorpe United and Dundee midfielder Lewis Spence, 27, and promising winger Ryan One were the Lanarkshire outfit’s most experienced players fielded by gaffer Sean Crighton.
Despite an expansive opening ten minutes, both sides struggled to fashion clear-cut opportunities. A vicious, close-range volley from Graham which landed in Neish Street was the closest the deadlock came to being broken.
Heenan Header Sees United Hit The Front
Diminutive forward Heenan has developed a knack for scoring headers for the U18s despite his small stature and, having being given the nod to start by Brian Grant and Andy Payne, he repaid the faith shown in him by opening the scoring on the 20-minute mark.
Thomson led a counter-attack from an Accies corner down the right, with support from Robson and Heenan in the middle. Anthony Carroll looked to have quelled the danger by stabbing a toe at Thomson’s eventual cross, however, Robson was alert to pick up the scraps and dink across goal for his colleague who stooped to head home into the empty net.
Accies number nine Ben Black was presented with the opportunity to level the arrears when Carroll’s cross was missed by the United defence, but the frontman miscued his free header which lacked the requisite power to trouble Ruiaridh Adams between the sticks for United.
The home side looked certain to double their advantage with four minutes until the interval after a tremendous reverse pass from Mwangi wrong-footed the entire Hamilton defence and set Thomson free in the area.
The 18-year-old’s cutback found Heenan who found his low drive thwarted by a sliding block from Sam Spence, then Robson beat the keeper with his rebound but the well-placed Arran Preston cleared off the line with his chest.
O'Donnell Threatening
Returning midfielder O’Donnell proved a threat from set-pieces in a variety of different ways on either side of the half-time whistle. First, his 20-yard free-kick warmed the gloves of Reece Murray, then picked out Graham with an inch-perfect out-swinging corner which the centre-half blasted narrowly over the crossbar. Finally, he headed wide following a tidy short-corner routine involving Mwangi and substitute Craig Moore.
Ten minutes after the restart, a slice of fortune would bring the leveller for Accies. Second-half sub Patrick Meechan charged into the right side of the area before sending a low ball across the six-yard area which was turned into the back of the net by unfortunate United defender Arron Donald.
Super Sub Moore Bags Winner
The Terrors reacted well to this setback and found themselves back in front mere minutes after being pegged back.
Mwangi and O’Donnell showed their astute technical ability to navigate tight spaces near the corner flag, with the ball eventually ending up at the feet of Layton Bisland who dug out a looping cross.
Heenan rose highest in the area to send a backpedaling header off the inside of the post, and Moore raced onto the loose ball to steer home under the keeper and reinstate United’s lead.
United could’ve made sure of the victory as the clock ticked onto the 90th minute when a three-on-one culminated in Thomson squaring for substitute Alan Domeracki, but the young midfielder took hesitated in pulling the trigger and the chance was squandered.
This miss didn’t prove costly however, as Grant and Payne’s men held onto their slender advantage with relative ease to put three more points on the cinch Reserve League table.
Teamlines
United: Adams, Bisland, Donald, Hutchinson, Graham, Comerford, Mwangi, Robson, Thomsn, O'Donnell, Heenan (McCabe, Bertie, Moore, Carnwath, Borland, Domeracki, Trotter)
Hamilton Academical: Murray, S.Spence, Carroll, Preston, Neeson, L.Spence, Kalala, Lyons, Black, Latona, One (Lane, Meechan, McDonald, Morgan, Haggerty, Newbury)
