Houston warns of hard work ahead

Dundee United manager Peter Houston labelled his side's latest performance as their worst during pre-season following their 1-1 draw at Glentoran.

The Arabs were only rescued from defeat by a last-miute equaliser from substitute Damian Casalinuovo after Daryl Fordyce had given their opponents a shock lead.

Defender Garry Kenneth and striker David Goodwillie were two players picked out amongst several currently needing to seriously improve by their dissatisfied boss.

"That was the poorest performance of pre-season," Houston told the Scottish Herald. "We started off very sloppy and had a lot of poor performances. At half-time I gave them a blast. I can accept people having bad games but I won`t accept sloppy ones.

"We didn`t work hard enough and I will be looking for a massive improvement in the remaining pre-season games," he continued. "We got where we were last season by hard work and nothing is going to change.

"I was pleased with some of the substitutes. Andis Shala came on and did well - as well as Garry in fact, and he`s supposed to be a Scotland internationalist. Garry`s fitness levels need to be better and David needs to work harder. They were not the only two but I have told them exactly what I`m saying here."

Houston once again had Lithuanian international trialist defender Irmantas Zelmikas in his starting line-up after featuring for 45 minutes against Queen`s Park in midweek.

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