Premiership

Dundee United are emerging as one of the stories of the season as Jim Goodwin’s side continue to thrive following a radical change in style from their manager.

As a coach, and certainly as a player, expansive, continental-inspired football was never really something associated with Goodwin, a Scottish football veteran who has been part of the furniture for more than 16 years.

But the former Aberdeen and St Mirren boss has said he has taken inspiration from Jens Berthel Askou’s work at Motherwell last season to reshape himself, and his side are lighting up the league after overcoming a difficult start.

An exhilarating 3-2 victory over Aberdeen in chaotic weather at Tannadice extended United’s unbeaten run to five matches, moving them up to fourth.

Now they face the Premiership’s acid test: a trip to Celtic Park.

Goodwin has got the better of the champions in two of his past three encounters with them, but both of those victories came at Tannadice last season.

Staggeringly, Celtic are unbeaten in 51 home games against United in all competitions since a 1-0 league defeat in December 1992.

Goodwin will be wary of the way Martin O’Neill’s men dismantled a bold Hearts side at Parkhead last time out, but the reinvented Irishman is urging his players to embrace a trip to the venue where his life in the Scottish game began.

Northern Ireland Football League CEO Gerard Lawlor has said member clubs “cannot continue doing the same things” after falling to 51st in Uefa’s association coefficient rankings.

Iberia 1999’s 1-1 draw at home to Mjallby in the Uefa Conference League on Thursday night moved Georgia’s domestic league up the standings, dropping Northern Ireland out of the crucial top 50.

While NIFL have said that their “final position remains subject to UEFA’s rankings and access arrangements”, as it stands that would mean the Irish Premiership will have only three European spots in the 2028-29 season.

Currently the Irish Premiership’s top two and Irish Cup winners automatically qualify for the next season’s Uefa competitions, while the league’s final spot is decided by an end-of-season play-off.

Lawlor called the expected loss of a European spot “a major concern and a potentially significant setback” for the game in Northern Ireland.

“The reality is that we are now facing the very real prospect of having just three clubs competing in Europe rather than four,” he said.

“European football provides vital opportunities for our clubs, players and supporters, alongside important financial investment that benefits the wider game.

“While we have witnessed some excellent individual European performances, collectively we must acknowledge that our results have not been good enough.”

Places in the Champions League, Europa League and Conference League are allocated on the basis of a five-year performance ranking.

This season, Glentoran, Linfield and Coleraine all fell at the first hurdle, while Larne squandered a two-goal aggregate advantage to lose to Lincoln Red Imps when 90 minutes away from the league phase of Conference League.

Poor showings in Europe are one factor in the ongoing debate over so-called summer football in the Irish Premiership, with 75% of NIFL’s 38 member clubs required to vote in favour of a calendar change.

“We cannot continue doing the same things, in the same way, and expect different outcomes,” said Lawlor.

“This reinforces why NIFL has been challenging clubs to think differently about their future, including seasonality, investment, player development and how we create a more competitive domestic environment.

“We must ask whether our current structures give clubs the best possible opportunity to succeed in Europe. We need to stop measuring ourselves solely against each other domestically and start measuring ourselves against European standards.”

For his part, Gary Haveron was left disappointed as his side let a two-goal lead slip on home turf and described the defending from his players as “pathetic”.

Before Friday’s game, Larne had only conceded three goals in their opening seven league matches.

But Coleraine’s fightback – led by Cooper, Shevlin and Doherty – meant that tally doubled in a devastating 21-minute burst.

Despite that, Haveron dismissed any notion of it being a statement win for the Bannsiders.

“We’ve still got to play them down there,” Haveron said.

“We drew the first one, they’ve won this one. There’s still a lot of games for us to play against them, and there’s lots of football between now and the end of the season.”

Larne, missing influential midfielder Chris Gallagher, will have to lick their wounds, and quickly, when they welcome fellow title challengers Linfield to Inver Park on Tuesday.

Friday’s defeat marks a disappointing week for Larne after they lost on penalties to Championship side Dundela in a penalty shooutout in the County Antrim Shield, after conceding a controversial injury-time penalty at Wilgar Park.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to bounce back from what is a disappointing week,” Haveron said about the trip to Linfield.

“I’m not bothered about Tuesday night [against Dundela], truth be told, I don’t have anything else to say about that.

“But today was bitterly disappointing because we had that game won and we should have killed it off.”