Jack Ross insists Dundee United have no Euro excuse for Livingston defeat and gives Aziz Behich update

Disappointed Jack Ross insists Dundee United can’t use their European exploits as an excuse after their Livingston let-down.

United went from the high of Thursday’s 1-0 home win over AZ Alkmaar to the low of losing their first Premiership game of the season at Tannadice to Livi. Ross knows that with Thursday’s trip to Holland to come that it is new for a lot of his squad and they have to get used to juggling the expectations on two fronts.

The United manager said: “I am loath to use it as an excuse because that would take away from Livingston’s performance and where we fell short. But I think if you speak to the managers in the Premiership outwith the big two who have done this, it is difficult. You don’t have the real depth which means you can make multiple changes but we still should have had a greater intensity.

"I think it becomes a state of mind for us but it is a new experience for a lot of the players. They had an incredible high on Thursday in terms of what they put into it, physically and what they put into it emotionally.

“It’s not an excuse, but it isn’t easy. It’s a learning experience for us as a squad as well and no matter what comes of it this Thursday, hopefully we can learn from it and be stronger next weekend.“

Ross reckons a slow start cost his team although he reckons they could have grabbed a late leveller. He added: "In the first sixty minutes we were not good but the last half hour we were okay.

“We had more intensity to our play, it wasn’t perfect but was better. On the balance of the first hour we didn’t deserve anything from the game, on the basis of the last half hour you could argue we could have got a point. But certainly not enough to win the game.”

Young Ghanian Matthew Cudjoe came off