Jim Goodwin laments missed chances despite Dundee United's Conference League win over Una Strassen

Jim Goodwin was pleased to see his Dundee United side take the advantage in their Conference League tie against UNA Strassen – but frustrated they hadn’t taken a firmer grip of the qualifier.

Zac Sapsford scored a debut goal early in the second half of the match at Tannadice but failure to add to his goal means Goodwin accepts it’s “still very much game on” for the return game in Luxembourg next week.

United have been busy in the market this summer and have seven debutants, and the manager took positives from how they were cohesive defensively, but he still feels they have plenty of improvement in them.

“My instant thought is that obviously we’re pleased with the clean sheet and that we scored a really good goal,” the United manager said.

“Saps showed a bit of individual quality with a fantastic turn to create the space and then a wonderful strike.

“I think there’s certain elements that we need to do better. We turned over possession far too cheaply at times tonight, which led to some counter-attacks for the opposition.

“I thought defensively we were very, very good but certainly there’s moments in the game where we need to improve.

“When we did move the ball quickly and found good pockets of space, I thought we looked a threat and looked dangerous. But we’ve left a couple of goals out there at least.

“I would rather be sitting here with a 3-0 advantage but as it stands at 1-0 it’s still very much game on.”

Goodwin said that it was still “early days” with a new-look squad and that they would aim to cut out what he saw as sloppiness in possession and a failure to move the ball quickly. He sees plenty to work on ahead of the second leg but said that there had been a little adjustment for his team to make as they moved into competitive games.

“It’s obviously been the first chance for the players to play in front of near enough a full house here at Tannadice,” he said. “We’ve had a terrific pre-season and played some good football in all of the games that we’ve been involved in but there’s a real difference between friendlies and competitive football.

“There’s that little bit more pressure.

“We’ll learn from tonight’s fixture.

“I don’t mean to sound all doom and gloom. I’m just disappointed we didn’t make the tie a little bit more comfortable for ourselves by taking one or two more of those good chances that we created.”