United Defeated In Driel

Although falling to a four goal defeat, manager Jackie McNamara still found plenty of positives from the opening match of the Club’s pre-season preparations. Said Jackie,“They are a quality side, so it was good that we could have scored a few goals. “The downside was that all their goals were preventable which shows that we still have things to work on, but that is understandable given it was our first game.” By Peter Rundo United started in sprightly style against the Arnhem side that finished fourth in the Dutch League last season and were preparing for their first game of the season in the third qualifying round tie in the Europa League. Indeed, just six minutes had gone when the Tangerines went close to scoring. Newcomer Marc Durnan and John Souttar traded passes before the ball found Ryan McGowan. He fed Ryan Dow whose close range effort was smothered by keeper Eloy Room. Unfortunately, Dow took a hefty knock from Room’s challenge. Continuing their good start, Mario Bilate’s head flick found Aidan Connolly, whose shot whizzed fractionally wide. Next to have a go was Chris Erskine with an effort which Room saved low down. So it was against the run of play that the Dutchman took the lead after fourteen minutes with Dow off the field still receiving treatment on 14 minutes. Showing superb control, Serbian striker Uros Djurdjevic brought the ball down to shoot low on the turn past keeper Marc McCallum. Immediately afterwards, Blair Spittal replaced the injured Dow, but three minutes later, the hosts doubled their lead with Djurdjevic again on target. He pounced on a short back-header from Durnan and, although McCallum got a hand to his shot, the ball crept inside the post. The Serb was close to completing his hat-trick on 28 minutes, but fired into the side netting. Undaunted, United hit back with Souttar surging forward before finding Connolly. His pass found Erskine whose drive was well saved. Then on the cusp of the interval, Room was at full stretch to beat away a Connolly curler from the edge of the box. United made six changes at half-time, with prospective signing Coll Donaldson, John Rankin, Ali Coote, Henri Anier, Charlie Telfer and Robbie Muirhead all coming on. But Arnhem added a third on 54 minutes when Denys Oliinyk netted, and it counted despite having looked suspiciously offside. Donaldson marked his debut by brilliantly blocking at the near post to prevent a fourth, but it only delayed Valeri Qazaishvili's firing low past McCallum from outside the box. United: McCallum, McGowan, Dillon (Donaldson 46), Durnan, Dixon, Souttar (Rankin 46), Fraser (Anier 46), Erskine (Coote 46), Connolly (Telfer 46), Dow (Spittal 15 (Spittal 65), Bilate (Muirhead 46). Subs not used: Zwick, Murray. Attendance: 1824   ."