Dundee United boss Ray McKinnon hoping cup success can spark league improvement

Dundee United manager Ray McKinnon hopes the manner of their Irn-Bru Cup final triumph can settle them down after a difficult period.

Thomas Mikkelsen headed a 74th-minute goal to put United 2-1 up against St Mirren at Fir Park and McKinnon's men created a series of chances on the break to kill the game off.

In the end, two goals was enough to see United lift the silverware.

But it is the confidence from the victory that many at Tannadice were most concerned with as they look to rejuvenate their promotion bid after winning just one of their last 10 Ladbrokes Championship games.

Hibernian went 14 points clear of fourth-placed United later on Saturday but a four-point deficit on Falkirk and Morton remained the same and McKinnon wants his side to build on their Fir Park experience.

"Hopefully the guys take a real confidence," he said. "I think more importantly the confidence comes from passing the ball.

"It was important we got back to that and didn't resort to long balls and hopeful play.

"We spoke about it in the last St Mirren game, we got a wee bit hopeful in our play and we had to address that. I thought they were excellent and responded fantastically, so hopefully they will take that into the rest of the season."

United fans appeared to be outnumbered in the 8,089 crowd and their rival supporters certainly approached the game with more enthusiasm.

Many of the Tayside club's fans were still smarting at being eligible for the tournament following their relegation last year but McKinnon was eager to take it seriously.

"I watched it last year and I saw the enjoyment the Rangers fans got from it, and their team," he said.

"To put silverware on your CV is very important. Every cup and every game we play, we want to win. That's the mentality, there's no games we don't want to win."

St Mirren saw their deficit at the foot of the Championship table increase as Ayr went four points clear with victory over Dumbarton, who are the same distance ahead of the bottom side.

But manager Jack Ross is confident they will get out of danger if they continue their level of performance.

Saints were unlucky to fall behind in the cup final to Tony Andreu's brilliant volley and levelled a minute later through Rory Loy as they dominated the first half.

Ross, whose side were acclaimed by their fans after the final whistle, said: "I have said often enough about supporters in Paisley, they quickly tell you what they think of performances, and I think their reaction at the end of the game was reflective of how they felt their team had performed.

"There's a group of players that believe in what they're doing and believe one each other, so if we can maintain that performance level over the remaining league games, we will win games and we will win enough games."

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