| The Irish striker was banned for Tuesday’s thrilling draw at Rangers after falling victim to what his manager believes was an unjust red card at Falkirk last weekend.
While, however, Craig Levein still has every sympathy for him, that is unlikely to extend to handing him an immediate return.
“What’s happened is harsh on Roy, but I am now in a situation where in his replacement (Francisco Sandaza) I have a striker who has scored two goals in his last game, and it was at Ibrox,” said Craig.
“If I didn’t play him after a performance like that, there would be questions, and rightly so. The way Sandaza played, means, for me, he is an automatic starter on Saturday.
“That’s unlucky for Roy, because he has been doing well, but I think it’s an obvious choice.”
And, while his players put in a hard shift on Tuesday and are in the middle of a run of four games in 11 days, the manager has had no thoughts of bringing in fresh legs.
“We are still early enough in the season and this is really the first run of midweek games we’ve had, so I think the players can handle it. If it was January or February it might be an issue, but we have a young, fit squad and I believe they’ll cope no problem.”
Add to that his disappointment with the 2-0 reserve defeat at St Mirren yesterday and it looks set to be an unchanged United line-up this weekend.
“If I had been thinking about changes, I might not be now, because we had a strong team out yesterday and no-one did themselves any favours. We did not play well and were well beaten.”
Sean Dillon took a knock at Ibrox, while fellow-defender Darren Dods aggravated an ankle problem he’s been carrying for the last few matches, but both are on course to face the Dons.
Definitely out again will be Jon Daly. It had been hoped he would return, but, as he recovers from a groin strain, the Irishman is still only jogging and is not now expected back until Saturday week and the trip to Killie. |
