DUNDEE United manager Craig Levein watched one of the worst-ever performances from one of his teams when they lost to Hamilton Academical in their opening game of the season, and has warned his players a repeat showing will culminate in a similar outcome.
The Tannadice side headed to New Douglas Park on the back of an impressive pre-season campaign which saw them go undefeated. But when the real action started in front of the television cameras, the United players could not recapture their summer form
and were defeated 3-1 by the Clydesdale Bank Premier League newcomers.
Things could not be more different for the two teams since that day, with United picking up to such an extent that they have only just seen a 10-match unbeaten run come to an end, while Accies have slumped to the bottom of the table and are without a win in nine league matches.
Despite their recent slump, Levein believes Hamilton's performances have been better than the results suggest.
He said: "We don't need any reminding about Hamilton because if we play like we did against them in the first game, we'll lose this game as well. It's as simple as that.
"They haven't been playing poorly at all and I've had them watched in their last three games. Without a doubt, they should have picked up something from all of them. All they need right now is a wee break and the last thing we want just now is to be the team that gives them it."
United's excellent form came to an end at Kilmarnock last weekend. But despite suffering their first defeat since September, Levein believes his team will not be knocked off course.
He said: "Against Killie, we didn't reach the heights we reached in previous matches, which was disappointing. We need to do better, but the one thing about this group of players is that anytime I've set them a question then they've always lifted things for the next game.
"That tells me a lot about their character. I'm hopeful we can do that again."
Hamilton come into the game on the back of defeats by Hearts and Celtic, while they play Kilmarnock and Rangers after their trip to Tannadice. But manager Billy Reid is not daunted by the fixture list and agrees with Levein that his side's recent performances have been good.
"We look at it that this is a game that we feel we can take something from," said Reid. "We've already beaten them – they will be smarting from that.
"I know we're away from home. But we went to Tynecastle and expected to deliver. We were beaten 1-0 on the night. We weren't disgraced, we pinned Hearts back for long spells, so there's no despondency.
"I think you've seen how well we've played against Celtic on Sunday. If we just take our chances, then we will be fine."
He added: "We had a wee spell of games where we lost our way a bit. We were learning and we played Rangers and Celtic three games out of four and took a lot of heavy defeats.
"Now I feel as though we're on the right road again, although I don't think we've got the points we've deserved so that's a wee bit frustrating."
The full article contains 558 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
