Tracksuits you sir

Sep 21 2008

CRAIG LEVEIN swapped his designer suit for a tracksuit at Pittodrie in a desperate bid to find the victory that hauled Dundee United off the bottom of the SPL.

Francisco Sandaza's penalty secured a 1-0 win over Aberdeen yesterday - and Levein admitted he had been ready to try anything to inspire his side.

He said: "I prefer being in the stand and to wear a suit but when your team is suffering, it's important to be seen to be part of it, not to be seen as distant from them. We're all in this together.

"So I got the tracksuit on. I was on the pitch helping with the warm-up, throwing the ball up for headers, anything I could do to change things.

"It's the first time I've had a sweat on in 20 years!

"And then I stayed in the dugout instead of taking a seat in the stand."

The United gaffer admits he was a nervous wreck before the early kick-off clash.

But he feels the future looks a lot brighter after steering his men to their first win of the season.

He said: "I could see how nervous we all were - I even asked to find out the other scores after our game but it was only half past two!

"I'm thrilled we got the win - even though it was a game that probably neither side deserved to win.

"We spent a lot of time last week working on our defending and it has paid off.

"It was especially important as we had to deal with so many set-pieces late on."

The Arabs' elation was in stark contrast to Aberdeen boss Jimmy Calderwood's mood afterwards.

Defeat left the Dons with just one point from 12 at home this season - a fact constantly being thrown at the Dons boss as he bids to sort out their Pittodrie problems.

But asked if he's relieved they're away next week - albeit to Celtic - he insisted: "I'd rather get the monkey off our back as soon as we can.

"We did everything we could in terms of effort and dominated the first half. We're just not giving ourselves a chance to win games.

"We've lost six goals at home and five of them have come from individual errors - and it was a clear penalty out there today.

"Our delivery from the wide areas was also poor.

"When you've got five guys in the box who are six feet plus, to hit the first man with the cross is criminal."