Greg Shields steers St Andrews United above drop zone

Last Saturday’s 2-2 home draw against Edinburgh University – with United goals by Ryan McManus and Alex McCreadie – and Tuesday’s 0-0 home stalemate against Hill of Beath Hawthorn have elevated Shields’ men onto 19 points from 17th matches with four teams now below them.

“It’s nice to see that we are climbing the table,” said 48-year-old former Rangers star Shields. “It’s a credit to the players, but we’ve not done anything yet.

"Edinburgh Uni completely outplayed us on Saturday which was disappointing, but we got lucky. We were not at it.

"When you’ve got seven or eight players that are underperforming it becomes really hard. But credit to Edinburgh, they are one of the best teams we’ve played in the league.

"They played a formation we found hard to play against. They knocked it about for fun for most of the game and we couldn’t handle it.

"Usually the teams you play against are very direct, then you go and play after that. I’m surprised Edinburgh are bottom of the league.

"That was the first time since I’ve been in that I saw a little chink in the armour from us. But we addressed it and we got a reaction on Tuesday night which was good.

"That’s three draws and two wins we’ve had in the league and the most pleasing part of that is that we’ve had four clean sheets out of five.

"That’s probably been the biggest difference since coming in, that we’ve managed to have clean sheets when prior we’ve not.

"Whether that’s been down to a bit of luck in games is fine. But I think in other games we’ve been unlucky not to win.

"The drawn game at Sauchie we’d a few late chances, and on Tuesday night against Hill of Beath they had a couple of chances but we had two or three really, really good chances in front of goal that we never took.

"On another night maybe they would have dropped for us. But getting a 0-0 draw against Hill of Beath with a strong strikeforce was excellent.”

Tuesday’s game against Hill of Beath was played as the original fixture six months earlier had been abandoned in the 81st minute due to Saints defender Ryan Roche – who is now on the transfer list – suffering a nasty shoulder injury and the visitors were leading by two goals at the time.

Former St Andrews manager Robbie Raeside returned with his latest side on his first visit back to The Clayton Caravan Park Recreation Ground since being sacked by United last June.

In an entertaining match which saw both sides miss chances, Saints’ Ross Cunningham rolled back the years with a vintage performance on the left wing.

To show the strength of Saints’ squad, this latest contest – in which United’s best scoring chance saw their Dunfermline Athletic loanee Freddie Rowe denied at point blank range – saw a change in goal with St Johnstone loanee Kyle Thomson replacing Logan Halliday between the sticks, while Finlay Kerr and Ross Cunningham also featured having missed the Edinburgh game.

"Finlay and Ross have been patient and they were excellent,” Shields added. “They played on the sides and did really well which was really pleasing. That was Finlay’s first start.

"Hill of Beath are very well organised. Robbie’s done a very good job since he’s gone there.

"We more than matched them, it was a very close game.”

United continue their league campaign at fifth-placed Whitburn this Saturday in a 2pm kick-off.

"I’ve seen Whitburn a few times,” Shields said. “They are a good side.

"There’s a player I used to coach at Dunfermline – Cammy Graham, who’s very good – and they’ve got a lot of experience and depth in that group.

"They’ve been around and they know the league. It’s about us being solid again and taking our chances.”