Goodwin eyeing revenge in 'dogfight' with Killie

Dundee United manager Jim Goodwin has an abundance of options as he looks to avenge the League Cup defeat to Kilmarnock when the sides meet in the Premiership on Saturday.

The Tangerines crashed 2-1 at Rugby Park in mid-August just four days after losing their thrilling Conference League qualifier against Rapid Vienna on penalties.

A difficult week which was compounded with injuries to Zac Sapsford, Max Watters, Isaac Pappoe, Ross Graham, Kristijan Trapanovski and Ryan Strain.

Goodwin feels United are much better armed for the latest battle with the return of Ryan Strain and Sapsford, plus the arrival of Nicolaj Moller, as well as an extra three days of training since their last outing, the 2-0 win over Aberdeen.

"People don't like managers making excuses for defeats and I think sometimes it's better just to credit the opposition," he said.

"But we obviously did play two hours against Rapid Vienna on the Thursday, and really had no time whatsoever to turn things around, and had a lack of players available to us as well.

"That's something that is probably worth mentioning, the options now I have got on the bench.

"The changes that I make during the game don't weaken the team, which as a manager is fantastic.

"Kilmarnock were the better team on the day when we played them in the League Cup and deserved to knock us out, so we want to show a positive reaction to that one.

"We don't feel that we did ourselves justice on the day against Killie.

"Kilmarnock are one of the more direct teams in the league. They've got two big, tall number nines, physical players at the top end of the pitch.

"It'll probably be a bit more of a dogfight than what it was against Aberdeen, who try to build from the back and play through the different sections."