Dundee United boss Jim Goodwin made changes to try and beat Hearts and admitted it ended up backfiring.
The United boss was desperate for the victory that would strengthen their place in third spot but lost 1-0 to Hearts. Goodwin made an early double change in the first half and then did it again in the second half when he sent on Glenn Middleton and Kristijan Trapanovski for Declan Gallagher and Luca Stephenson and seconds later Hearts got their goal.
The Tannadice gaffer explained: “Yeah, I mean, look, hindsight’s a great thing, I suppose. We’ve made changes through our games in the past and been really positive and had great impacts and got results off the back of it. This afternoon, unfortunately for the likes of [Kristijan] Trapanovski and Glenn [Middleton], they don’t even have time to settle into the game and make that type of impact we were hoping for before we found ourselves going a goal behind.
“You could argue, had Declan Gallagher been on the pitch at that point and we stayed in the back three, would we have conceded that goal? Who knows? But we wanted to make a change. We wanted to get more pace, a bit more energy on to the park. And that’s why we made it.
“We tried to win the game as opposed to just settling for the 0-0 and unfortunately, this afternoon, that backfired. So, as manager, I’ve got to take responsibility for that.”
Goodwin explained David Babunski missed the game through illness. He also knows he can’t be too critical of his Dundee United players as they have lost just two games in 11 in such a gruelling schedule.
He said: “Well, obviously not the result that we were hoping for this afternoon. I thought it was a real lack of quality in the game for both teams. Both teams obviously did not have a great deal of time to recover in between the last game and Thursday.
“Obviously we put a hell of a lot into that game on Thursday evening. I just don’t think the energy levels were where they needed to be this afternoon. With that said, the players gave everything and kept going. The goal that we conceded is really disappointing in terms of the fashion of it. Where we don’t do enough to stop the cross in the wide areas.”
He also explained his reasons for taking Miller Thomson and Richard Odada off in the first half. Goodwin added: “Yeah, I mean, look, Ross Docherty obviously played the game on Thursday against Dundee. He’s not long back from a lengthy injury and we just felt 48 hours in between the games was not enough to recover.
“So we tried to protect Doc and we gave Richard the opportunity. In terms of Miller-Thompson, the reason behind that was to get a bit of pace at the top end of the pitch to try and go and stretch the game. But it never worked, unfortunately. So we felt we had to make that change and get Jort (van der Sande) on for a bit more physical presence and Richard, I just felt, had a real nervy start.”