| Eight times the Tangerines have gone ahead and not won. That has cost them their UEFA Cup place and seen a gap open in the race to be in the SPL’s top six come the April split.
It happened again at Inverness on Saturday when Lee Miller’s early penalty was cancelled out by a Ross Tokely strike. Although he was not happy with the defending of that 20th-minute goal, the manager believed there was still plenty of time and opportunity for his attack to win the game.
“When you are losing leads, people will look at the defending, but I honestly believe part of the problem is that we are not scoring enough goals,” said Gordon.
“We have not quite reached 20 in the league and when you look at the number of attack-minded players we are putting out on the park we really should be scoring more. In the second half on Saturday, we certainly had the chances to get goals and it was the same the previous week against Motherwell.
“It’s not about making excuses for the defenders, but if we were taking more chances, we would make their job a good bit easier.”
On the subject of his back line, Gordon took time to praise the way in which David McCracken, who was captain against ICT, has reacted to being left out of the side earlier in the campaign.
“Back in August, after we beat Motherwell, I left him out because I was not happy with his defending and I told him so. When he got back in the team, I told him he had to make the most of his chance and, to be fair to him, he has done that.
“I thought he played very well on Saturday and his performances since he came back have been very consistent. That’s the level I expect of him and it is up to him to maintain that form.”
Out-of-favour club captain Derek McInnes was linked with former club Morton over the weekend, but today Gordon insisted he has heard nothing from Cappielow boss, ex-United stalwart Jim McInally.
Even so, McInnes has become almost a permanent sub and it seems certain the Tangerines would be willing to release him if a club came in for him in January.
United chairman Eddie Thompson, meanwhile, has passed on his thanks to the small band of fans who braved difficult travel conditions to be at Caledonian Stadium on Saturday.
Rain and sleet made for a dangerous journey for those who headed up the A9 by bus and car, while rail travellers faced extensive delays following an early morning derailment just south of the highland capital.
Even so, around 150 or so fans were in the stadium and backed the team throughout. |
