Marc McNulty heads home dramatic injury-time winner as Dundee United sink St Mirren 2-1 in battle for top-six spot

Marc McNulty nodded home a 96th minute winner for Dundee United against St Mirren at the SMiSA Stadium to move the Tayside outfit into pole position for a top-six finish.

The Tangerines had not won away from Tannadice in the Premiership for five months as they headed to Paisley but they jumped up from seventh to fourth place in the table, with two games remaining before the league split.

United trailed to Jay Henderson’s stunning early strike but the visitors dominated the second half as Dylan Levitt rifled home an equaliser before McNulty headed home from close range deep into injury-time, sparking wild celebrations with the large travelling support.

Saints manager Stephen Robinson, who watched his side end the game with ten men after Jak Alnwick’s straight red card for a rash challenge on Tony Watt, had no complaints about the outcome.

He admitted: “I didn’t think we deserved anything. We started brilliantly with Jay’s goal, it’s was a superb strike. I thought him and Conor Ronan were the only bright sparks that we had.

“We didn’t pass the ball in the second half when United started turning us. We didn’t defend well enough and were taken touches when we shouldn’t have been.

“We got what we deserved, there’s no point dressing it up in any other shape or form.

“We had a 20 minute spell before half-time when we controlled the game and had lots of corners but we came out in the second half and we stepped off.

“I didn’t think our forward players gave us anything in terms of our press. We didn’t play or pass the ball, so if you’re not going to do that you’re going to play the next 47 minutes defending and we didn’t defend well enough when we needed to.

“I’ll take the blame in terms of we had to make changes and take the two wide players off because they tired. Greg (Kiltie) didn’t have an influence on the game at all or Eamonn (Brophy) and that’s a reflection on our performance.

“It was night and day from the Hearts performance. We need to get back to that level. We’ve got nothing to lose from the next two games, we go to Motherwell now and we have to perform.”

Asked for his thoughts on the red card incident, Robinson replied: “I haven’t seen it but I’ve been told it’s a red card. That’s not why we lost the game, we didn’t perform well enough.

“We’re very lucky we’ve still got two games where we’re a point of top-six and three of fourth place, so its very much still to play for, but it certainly needs to be better than that.”

The Buddies had lost just one of their last nine games on home soil in all competitions and they got off to the perfect start after just three minutes when Ronan, who earned his first senior call-up to the Republic of Ireland squad earlier this week, picked out Jay Henderson 30-yards out.

The pacey winger surged past United defender Scott McMann before unleashing an explosive effort which looped over Benjamin Siegrist into the net.

It was the 20-year-old’s second senior goal - his first coming against the same opponents at Tannadice in January.

It took the visitors until midway through the first half to register an effort on goal when youngster Miller Thomson intercepted a stray Alex Gogic pass before slipping the ball to McNulty.

The former Scotland striker was forced out wide under pressure from a Saints defender and screwed his shot across the face of goal, narrowly wide of the target.

The home side ended the first-half on the front-foot with Eamonn Brophy trying his luck from distance which flew inches wide of the post, but they failed to capitalise on a series of corners before the interval.

Dundee United had been outclassed by Celtic in the Scottish Cup prior to this game with manager Thomas Courts concerned at his side’s failure to muster a single shot on target throughout the 90 minutes.

Sensing a similar story, the former Kelty Hearts boss made a double substitution at the break, which helped spark him team into life.

United flew out of the traps in the second half with Tony Watt’s low cross causing a moment of panic in the hosts’ backline. The ball broke to the unmarked McNulty whose goal-bound shot was headed off the line by Richard Tait.

Nicky Clark then had a thunderous strike which crashed off the bar moments later before the woodwork denied United again just after the hour mark when Ryan Edwards hooked an effort off the bar after Saints failed to clear another ball into their six-yard box.

If Henderson’s opening goal was a thing of beauty the equaliser was just as special. Manchester United loanee Levitt pounced a fortuitous bounce by smashing a swerving shot with the outside of his boot past Alnwick and in off the post.

The visitors were firmly in the driving seat by this point and Saints task was made even harder in the 88th minute when Alnwick was ordered off for catching Watt with a high boot as the United frontman looked favourite to latch on to a through ball.

However, just when it appeared the hosts were about to hold on to record an ill-deserved share of the spoils, McNulty found himself in the right place at the right time to head home from close range to grab a precious match-winner with the last kick of the ball.

United boss Courts labelled his side’s opening 45 minute display the WORST during his nine month tenure but praised his players for grinding out a vital three points.

He admitted: “Our form earlier in the season there was a lot of top performances and we probably haven’t hit the heady heights that we did hit earlier in the season.

“The first 45 minutes today was probably up there with the worst in my tenure. The timing and the manner of the St Mirren goal rocked us a little bit. It dented our confidence and we couldn’t get any rhythm.

“We just tried to refocus the players at half-time. Once we got back to level terms I felt there was only going to be one team that was going on to win the match. What a time and what a moment it was to score.

“It’s a satisfactory day at the office. We’ve only beaten twice in about 10 or 11 games so we’ve been pretty resolute, but at this stage of the season three points are pretty significant.”

St Mirren: Alnwick, Fraser, Shaughnessy, Dunne, Tait, Power (Erhahon; 82), Gogic, Henderson (McCarthy; 66), Ronan, Kiltie (Greive; 66) (Lyness; 88), Brophy (Main; 82)

Unused: Flynn

Dundee United: Siegrist, Smith, Mulgrew, Niskanen, McNulty, Edwards, Butcher, Levitt, Watt, McMann (Graham; 45), Thomson (Clark; 45)

Unused: Eriksson (GK), Sporle, McDonald, Meekison, Neilson, Freeman, Mochrie

Referee: Nick Walsh

Attendance: 5,710 (844 away)

GlasgowWorld Man of the Match: Marc McNulty (Dundee United)