Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin says derby draw fair but ‘felt like a defeat’

Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin said Sunday’s 2-2 draw at home to city rivals Dundee “felt like a defeat” as he lamented his side’s missed opportunity to mark their return to the William Hill Premiership with a victory.

The newly-promoted Terrors led 2-1 through first-half goals from Kristijan Trapanovski and Miller Thomson either side of Seb Palmer-Houlden’s equaliser.

And they had a golden chance to stretch their lead in the 57th minute when Trapanovski went clean through on goal and clipped the ball over goalkeeper Jon McCracken, only to see Lyall Cameron race back to stop it crossing the line.

It proved pivotal as Dundee hit back to claim a point through a late Luke McCowan penalty after Ross Graham brought down Simon Murray.

“We’re disappointed, particularly when you look at that big moment at 2-1 where we caught Dundee on the counter-attack from their set-play and Trapanovski was through one-on-one,” said Goodwin.

“I’m not going to be over-critical of him because I thought he had a terrific game. The goalkeeper was about 18-20 yards out, so I would have preferred had he knocked the ball by the goalkeeper and rounded him and tapped it in, but he went for the audacious chip.

“It nearly came off but I suppose you have to give credit to the defending Dundee player for not giving up on it and getting back to clear it off the line just in time.

“If that goes in, it’s 3-1 and Dundee would have had a big mountain to climb. I think it gave them a lift that it didn’t go in and they threw everything at us in the second half.

“Over the piece, when I watch the game back later on, I’ll probably be thinking a draw was possibly a fair result.”

Goodwin also said that coins were thrown at him from some of the 3000 Dundee fans who were seated in the main stand.

“I’ve had three or four chucked at me throughout the game,” he said. “I spoke to the security guys downstairs and no doubt they’ll stick a report in to the SFA.

“It’s disappointing, it’s not the first time it’s happened here with the fans behind the dugout. It’s a game full of emotion but we don’t want that.”

Dundee boss Tony Docherty was disappointed his side did not go on and win the game after McCowan’s 79th-minute equaliser.

“I thought we were the team in the ascendency at the end,” he said.

“I had a feeling we were going to nick it. I think we had a couple of great chances towards the end.

“Curtis Main in front of goal, and the one from Simon Murray as well.

“Dundee United in the first half had obviously watched us, they’d tried to negate our strengths and I thought they did well with that.

“The character of the squad to come back from 1-0 down and 2-1 down speaks volumes of what I’ve got in there.”