EVERY WORD | JIM GOODWIN PREVIEWS RETURN TO WILLIAM HILL PREMIERSHIP ACTION

Dundee United Manager Jim Goodwin spoke to the broadcast media to preview our William Hill Premiership clash with Rangers at Ibrox.

On the Boss' agenda was Louis Moult's recovery, breaking records, running Rangers close at Tannadice and heading west with confidence.

ON TEAM NEWS:

Louis Moult has been back in with the group all week training which is a real boost for us. The game is probably going to come too soon for Ross Graham, unfortunately, but we would expect Ross to be back in at the early part of next week in the build-up to the St Mirren game.

Craig Sibbald and Kristijan Trapanovski are the other two who will miss out.

ON THE BOOST OF MOULT’S POTENTIAL RETURN:

Louis is a natural goalscorer - he's done that throughout his career.

He had a difficult period prior to coming to Dundee United where injuries got the better of him and with that came a lack of game time.

It was really unfortunate with the injury he picked up against Kilmarnock at Rugby Park. He’d just scored a couple of goals back-to-back and then obviously suffered the injury, which has kept him out for the last few weeks, but I'm delighted to say that he's over that.

He's trained really well this week and he gives us another great option in the forward areas.

ON KRISTIJAN TRAPNOVSKI’S SITUATION:

Kristijan had a hamstring injury a couple of months ago. We had hoped he was over that bringing him back into the fold.

But unfortunately at Easter Road, he had a reoccurrence of that injury. So we're probably looking at another ten to 14 days until we have him back in training and hopefully then being available for selection soon thereafter because he's been a really important player for us.

He's an exciting one for the fans, a really good attacking option for us who’s very positive and direct in the forward areas.

We're not blessed with great numbers as it is anyway, so to have had to deal with the number of injuries that we have had to in recent weeks, I think it's credit to the group that we've been able to come through it with the number of points that we have.

ON GOING LEVEL ON POINTS WITH RANGERS WITH A VICTORY:

That is a huge motivation for the players - we want to stay as close as we possibly can to the teams above us. A win would be fantastic. We know it's going to be difficult. I don't think Rangers have lost a game at home in the league this season.

I don't think our track record over the last maybe 100 games is brilliant either at Ibrox, but at the same time, we're going into the game with a real positive vibe.

We had a fantastic performance against Ross County last time out. We've analysed Rangers and watched their games back.

I thought St Mirren and Hearts in particular ran Rangers close at Ibrox. So we've got to take the good parts of those games and try and use that to our advantage as well to learn from them.

ON A CLOSE ENCOUNTER LAST TIME OUT

We didn't play well in the first half and deservedly found ourselves going behind. But in the second half, I thought we were excellent.

We dominated the game in the second 45 minutes - I think we've got to take great confidence from that. A number of the players in the group have never played at Ibrox before, I think it's a great venue.

We know how good the Rangers fans can be in terms of creating a good atmosphere. But on the flip side of that, if we can go there and get the game plan right and try and create some nervous tension about the place, we know that the home fans can very quickly get on the backs of their players.

That's what a lot of managers would be saying to their players before going into these games, to try and use that to our advantage so that's what we intend to try and do.

We need to be disciplined out of possession, the shape of the team needs to be good and when we get the opportunity to play, we have to be brave on the ball.

ON HEADING TO GOVAN WITH CONFIDENCE OF SECURING A POSITIVE RESULT DESPITE BEING WINLESS AT IBROX IN 13 YEARS:

We go into every game trying to be positive. The boys have ticked off a few of those kind of records that you're talking about. We hadn't beaten St Johnstone for about a decade here at Tannadice and we've done it this season.

It was around 10 or 11 years since the last time Dundee United had won at Tynecastle, this group went and did that this season. Those records you're talking about have to change at some point.

There's no reason why we can't be the team to put that record straight. We have to believe that we can. We're going down there to give a really good account of ourselves and to exploit the areas where we feel that we can get at Rangers.

On the flip side of that, we recognise they've got some really good players in the attacking areas. We have to make sure that the concentration levels and discipline are there for the course of the game.

I reiterate the fact that our boys are in a really good place just now. We're three points behind Rangers. So, of course, the incentive is to try and win the game and go level on points with them.

It's going to be difficult, Of course it is, but we go into every game believing that we can win and this Saturday is no different.

ON OUR OPPONENTS’ DIFFICULT START TO 2024/25:

They've had a difficult start. There was a big turnover of players in the summer, similar to ourselves, and sometimes it can take a little bit longer for new players to gel. When you play for a club like Rangers, there is intense pressure on you and a huge level of expectation.

The Rangers supporters are not happy at the fact that Celtic are so far out in front - that brings with it its different kind of pressures. To play for a club like Rangers, you've got to be a strong character. That has been called into question numerous times this season.

We have got to put Rangers under as much pressure as we can and take the positives from the last time we played against them. I believe we've got players within our ranks that can cause them problems as well.

ON THE OLD FIRM BEING SPLIT:

I think anybody who has watched the league up until now would agree that it’s going to be very hard for any team to catch them, but Aberdeen are at the moment splitting Celtic and Rangers.

If they were able to hold on to that position and finish second in the table this season, that would be a hell of an achievement.

But from our own perspective, we've just got to try and continue to pick up as many points as we can. We're sitting on 19 at the moment, which I think is a really good return for a team that's just newly promoted with the number of new players that we brought in.

ON HEADING INTO A WELL-TIMED INTERNATIONAL BREAK ON A HIGH

The break came at a decent time for us, to be honest, given the amount of injuries that we had going into the Ross County game.

The boys were terrific on the day, played really well, completely dominated the game and it was probably our most consistent, 90-minute performance all season.

Defensively, we were really solid, looked a real threat going forward on every occasion, and it was just great to be able to give the home support three goals to cheer about.

Obviously, the icing on the cake was young Owen Stirton coming off the bench and scoring with his second touch.

ON OWEN STIRTON’S RISING REPUTATION

I don't want to put too much pressure on his young shoulders. He has been training with us now for 12 months since he came to the club full-time. He's not 18 until the end of January and he got a great chance to score on his debut the way that he did.

I said after the game, it was Roy of the Rover stuff and that's exactly what it was. It was a dream come true for him. He's been walking on cloud nine ever since and he'll take a lot of confidence from it.

Something that we're very proud of here at this club is the pathway that we've got available to these young players.

The likes of Ross Graham, Miller Thompson and Kai Fotheringham play in the first team on a regular basis. Owen Stirton has been in and around it and we’ve got one or two others coming in behind him as well.

Sam Harding is having a great loan spell with Kelty Hearts - he's another one that we've got real high hopes for. The future is certainly bright for the Academy boys.

ON THE PRESSURE BEING ON THE HOME SIDE

Whenever you go to Ibrox, obviously the expectation is for Rangers to win the game - most neutrals believe that's going to be the case and no doubt the bookies will have them as firm favourites.

But within our own dressing room, we believe that we've got enough in our armoury to go and cause Rangers real problems. We're going to set our stall out to do that. We want to be really positive, on the front foot and disciplined.

We know there's going to be periods in the game where Rangers are going to have a lot of possession and we're going to maybe have to sit into a low block and defend the box bravely.

But we showed out here for about 45 minutes against them last time that we can hurt them. We have to be ruthless in both boxes - you hear managers talk about that a lot.

We've got to put our body on the line in front of our own goal. We expect Jack Walton to have saves that he's going to have to make, and then when we get the opportunities at the other end, we have to make sure that we're clinical.