Houston demands Dundee Utd focus

Posted Friday, December 25, 2009 by BBC.com

Houston demands Dundee Utd focus
With Levein gone, Houston will be calling the shots now at Dundee United

Dundee United caretaker manager Peter Houston insists that his players do not allow the departure of Craig Levein to affect their match against Kilmarnock.

Levein was installed as Scotland boss on Wednesday, leaving Houston in charge for the Boxing Day game, one of five in the Scottish Premier League that day.

"Time moves on and, in football, people move on," said Houston.

"Craig's done well and moved on to a new job. It's done now and everyone at Tannadice just needs to look forward."

Houston, a long-term assistant to Levein, who will be in charge at United for the next three weeks, added: "Craig always told the players we didn't want them here for ever; hopefully they'd get good enough and move on.

"The same has applied to him.

"We lost Barry Robson two years ago and people thought it was the end of the world.

"He was a big loss to the club and, after he went, some people were dejected. But once we got out training, everything was fine."

Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies, having seen his team beaten by bottom club Falkirk last Saturday, insists that Levein's exit has not changed the Ayrshire side's strategy.

He said: "We will prepare for the game as if Craig was still there. The United players have got to get on with it and I'm sure that they will.

"We will face a tough match, United are a good team but we have a decent record up there and so look forward to it."

Elsewhere in the SPL, Celtic will look to recover from their 2-1 reverse at Hearts last Sunday with a victory over Hamilton.

There has been press speculation this week that Celtic manager Tony Mowbray is set to strengthen his squad by adding Robbie Keane, Matthew Kilgallon and Belarus defender Dmitry Verkhovtsov in January.

However, Mowbray scoffed at the reports.

"What do you want to do - go through them all or do you want the same answer for all names?" asked the Parkhead manager.

"I'm not sure how those names come around.

"I have never heard of some of them, some we are very aware of and some I know are not possible.

"What we hope to do in January is to add players to help the squad and to help the existing players and not necessarily replace them.

His counterpart in the visitors' dugout will be Billy Reid, who said of his team's trip to Celtic Park: "We have got to try to be brave and take the ball.

"When you go to places like that, you have to have players who want the ball and make sure their good players don't play."

Certainly Hamilton will be looking to improve on the 4-0 and 4-1 defeats they suffered in the east end of Glasgow last season.

Motherwell welcome St Johnstone to Fir Park, with the home side hoping they can recover from the 6-1 hammering at Ibrox by Rangers in their last outing.

Steelmen manager Jim Gannon said: "I have looked at the game since and chewed over what we can improve, and there is a lot of work to be done.

"There were a lot of weaknesses that were highlighted in that game and we need now to get back to basics."

In the Perth Saints, they face a team four points behind Well in the league but which has designs on the Lanarkshire side's fifth place.

Derek McInnes, the St Johnstone boss, has warned his players not to read much into Motherwell's thrashing last week.

"Any time you lose, you are looking for a response and Motherwell will also be looking for a response," said McInnes. Houston demands Dundee Utd focus

"Jim Gannon will see that defeat as part of the learning process for his players and will take whatever positives he can from it.

"After beating St Mirren last week, we look forward to getting some consistency going because if you lose every second or third game, then you will struggle to get out of the bottom half of the table."

Falkirk's Brian McLean and Hearts' Christian Nade tussle

Falkirk and Hearts enjoyed surprise wins in the previous round of SPL games, beating Kilmarnock and Celtic respectively.

Despite their comeback against Celtic at Tynecastle, Hearts manager Csaba Laszlo is adamant that he still must improve his squad.

"You cannot say that with some new young players we have a better run, now we don't need anybody - this is not true," he said.

"We can't now forget everything because we beat Celtic."

St Mirren are hovering above the relegation zone, with just two points more than bottom team Falkirk.

Ahead of the visit of Aberdeen on Boxing Day, manager Gus MacPherson said: "It's points you start to look at.

"If you concentrate on your own results, that's the most important thing.

"We can't affect any other games that are going on elsewhere in the country, so we've just got to make sure that we're focused on trying to get a win against Aberdeen."

The Dons, though, are desperate to make up for consecutive home defeats by Hamilton and Hibernian by picking up points against the Buddies and Falkirk, before they head for Tannadice.

"We have two good games now which are games which give us an opportunity to bounce back ready for the Dundee United game," said Aberdeen manager McGhee.

"So that's got to be our target, to win these games and set ourselves up for the Dundee United game."

Third-placed Hibernian host Rangers on Sunday looking to continue their excellent run of form when they take on the SPL leaders, whose next three matches are against their three closest rivals at the top of the table.