Dunfermline 1 - 4 Dundee Utd: Fewer problems for Houston as United front sinks Pars

Last week, the Scottish Sun screamed that Houston was set to be “fired” with Thompson having cut short his holiday in Florida to carry out the deed. In recent days, the summoning of the United manager in front of his board has been given the “crisis talk” label. Against this backdrop, Houston now intends to go in front of his paymasters seeking answers as much as providing them.

“I’ll speak to the chairman and the directors – every one of them – with respect to what’s appeared in the newspapers this week,” he said.

“I don’t fear it. I’m looking forward to it. I’m accountable to the board and results should be better. But we had nine under-21s in the squad today – there has to be a period of transition. I’ll go in there sensibly.

“I’m 53 years of age, not some silly wee boy, but I want to know where all this came from. Then, on Monday, I’ll speak to you boys. Newspapers can write things which are right or wrong but I want to get to the bottom of where it came from, and how it got out.

“I don’t know if I’ve been undermined. You can ask a question and you’ve got to believe the answer unless you have proof. And if I don’t have proof then I’ll just have to get on with it. I never said I am the second best manager at United after Jim McLean. I’m not like that and Craig Levein is a far better manager than me, but the fact is my stats are better than his. If I’m called into question, the fact is I’ve done alright.”

His team did more than alright for most of their afternoon at East End Park. On the back of losing to Falkirk in the League Cup in midweek and last weekend’s scoreless draw against St Johnstone – two games in which Houston said his players performed well – the general chat was that United had to end a five-game run without a league game to prevent Houston’s tenure ending after 22 months.

Inside 18 minutes, it seemed job done, with Lauri Dalla Valle netting United’s second when Paul Dixon’s attempted pass deflected off several legs before bobbling its way to the forward, who chipped a shot beyond the helpless Paul Gallagher.

Five minutes earlier Dixon had lashed in an effort in from the left of goal 15 yards out after a Willo Flood free-kick to the right had found its way to him and, by that stage, Dunfermline looked certain to extend their winless run at home.

That became guaranteed when Gary Mason went into a crunching challenge with Johnny Russell that had Stevie O’Reilly reaching for a red card – to the surprise of all, and the anger of Dunfermline manager Jim McIntyre, who later said the club would appeal the decision. “It was never a sending off,” he said. “I’ve watched it again and his foot never left the ground. He slid along the ground and played the ball and it’s not even a foul in my opinion. That gave us a mountain to climb.”

McIntyre could be heartened that his team even succeeded in scaling one small peak. Never in the contest for 45 minutes, at half-time they gave it a go and were rewarded inside eight minutes when Paddy Boyle slipped in Andy Kirk down the left and the Northern Irishman tucked the ball away tidily from the edge of the box. It was the Fife club’s first meaningful attack but, from nowhere, they had United jittery. “When we got it back to 2-1 I thought we carried a threat but you are always susceptible to the counter-attack,” said McIntyre.

Attacks came in waves for United late on and, with 15 minutes remaining, terrible Dunfermline defending at a corner allowed Russell to hook the ball in from close range. Two minutes later he whacked the crossbar but the fourth was only delayed until the 82nd minute, arriving when Russell unselfishly squared to substitute Gary Mackay-Steven to knock in. Russell afterwards maintained that the nature of his team’s win demonstrated what they thought of a manager whose relationship with his chairman is said to have completely broken down.

“We really need the win and it is a massive boost,” he said. “All the boys are behind the manager 100 per cent and we showed that with our commitment. It is not nice to see the manager getting a bit of stick but we kept going forward after the got it back to 2-1 and we got our reward. We haven’t been taking our chances though we’ve been creating lots of them, but we took a few today.”

What the chances are of the confab between Houston and his board producing a positive outcome today, no-one can know for sure.