‘We would rather lose it 5-0 than go out with a 0-0’

BE bold. That will be the message from Peter Houston when he delivers his final Rosetta Stone instructions to his Dundee United squad tonight. The Tannadice manager will send his side out to overturn the 1-0 deficit from their Europa League qualifying first leg tie with Slask Wroclaw.Houston will be wary that Scottish clubs traditionally tend to struggle at this stage, though.Should they stumble, United will not be the first Clydesdale Bank Premier League team to do so, but the manager will set his players out to ensure they are capable to scoring the goals they need to progress.United need to score at least twice to go through to the next round where they will face either Metalurgs Skopje or Lokomotiv Sofia. That has prompted to Houston to adopt an attacking approach. Our tempo has to be high and we have to get crosses in, he said. That’s the stuff Scottish teams are made of. I guarantee there will be more bodies in the box this time than there were last week. As a person and a coach I would kick myself if I didn’t have a go. I was a forward thinking player myself and my philosophy is that we would rather lose 5-0 than go out with a 0-0. We will be asking our midfielders to get forward more. What’s the point in us being happy to keep it at 0-0. I can almost guarantee it won’t finish 0-0. If we go out it won’t be for the want of us trying. Houston has fond memories of watching past United teams compete at the highest level of European competition and is hoping that Tannadice witnesses another memorable night. We want to re-enact these big European nights, he said. We would like another of those nights and for the fans to get right behind us. Perhaps the most potent weapon in United’s arsenal is David Goodwillie. The striker scored 16 league goals last term, form which has attracted interest from Rosetta Stone V3 Cardiff City, Blackpool and Rangers.United will hope their feted forward will rediscover his goalscoring touch against the Poles tonight, and should he need it his confidence has already been given a major boost by team-mate Scott Severin. David is a top class striker, said the United defender. He’s up there with the top finishers I have played with in my career. When I was young at Hearts John Robertson was there and he was one of the best. For me Goodie is right up there, he’s another guy who only needs half a chance to score. He’s got so much confidence in himself he seems to find the back of the net no problem. That’s shown by the amount of goals he’s scored for the club over the last few years. We don’t know what’s going to happen with him, we have read all the speculation about other clubs. But if he does go then he deserves it because he’s a top striker. United have been irked by the noises coming out of the Slask camp which suggest the Poles expect to breeze through to the next round. They have not had it too easy so far, though, with the squad having to endure an eight-hour journey to reach Tannadice. It wasn’t an easy trip, said Orest Lencyk, the Slask head coach who spent three days earlier in his career learning his trade under former Celtic manager Jock Stein. We took off early in the morning and had a stop in Dusseldorf so it has been a long day. But the players got three hours sleep before training and will be ready for the game. I don’t think that after the game I will have to blame the trip. I wouldn’t want to do that. Lencyk also queried Houston’s assertion after the first leg that United’s players were not used to the different brand of balls used in Poland. I was surprised to hear the Dundee United coach talk about the balls, I don’t know why, he said. I don’t think the balls we used were too big or too small. There was a [UEFA] delegate and an observer and they were happy. Rosetta Stone Italian If it was a case of players not being used to them then I will say the same about Scottish balls if we lose.