Brebner relishing relegation battle

Dundee United midfielder Grant Brebner is relishing the prospect of a Bank of Scotland Premier League dogfight despite his team’s heavy involvement.

The former Hibernian man scored a crucial injury-time winner against Hearts at the weekend after Lee Miller had cancelled out Barry Robson’s opener for the Tangerines in the first half.

But, with Livingston scoring a shock 3-0 win at Hibernian too, Brebner’s goal kept United off the foot of the SPL table.

Now the two clubs will go head-to-head at Tannadice next weekend in a crunch relegation game.

However, the 27-year-old believes having something to play for beats a boring end to the season.

Brebner said: “Ideally, it would be nice to have a four-point cushion over Livi, but it was not to be and we’ll face them here knowing that a victory would go a long way to making us safe.

“Every game is going to be like a pressure cooker, but it’s good for Scottish football.

“Meaningless games have done this league a lot of harm over the years, so it’s good that every issue is still undecided and will go right to the wire.”

But Brebner admits his goal against the Jambos had personal and professional implications.

He added: “It was definitely the best goal of my career, both importance wise and how it looked.

“Before the game you probably would’ve said a point today was a good result, but because of what Livi did at Easter Road we had to win in the end.

“A few of the players knew Livi were winning because the Hearts guys had been told, so the news got onto the pitch that way.

“So, to score in the last minute, was a huge relief.”

The ex-Manchester United man took stick from the visiting Hearts fans for his Easter Road connections and admitted it was doubly sweet to silence them in the dying seconds.

Brebner said: “I love getting stick from the Hearts fans and would much rather I was getting it than wasn’t because it means you are doing something right.

“It’s part and parcel of football and the goal certainly threw their words back at them.

“But, at the end of the day, scoring a goal which takes the club a bit further away from relegation is much more important than annoying Hearts fans right now.

“It is the same set of players here, but Gordon Chisholm is his own man and has his own ideas.

“Squad togetherness is very important to him and he’s done things like make us eat together, whether the players like it or not.

“We lost late goals in the first two games against Celtic and Hibs, but things have turned since then and for many of us the last seven days have been the best in our careers.

“We have taken a lot of stick this season and rightly so because we have been awful at times, but we’re in Europe, the Scottish Cup final and have a great chance of staying in this league – so things are starting to look up.”

But Hearts head coach John Robertson admits his players are putting him under pressure by making costly mistakes after the midweek loss to Hibernian at Tynecastle.

He said: “I can’t believe we’ve lost the last two games but, similar to Wednesday, if you don’t take your chances it will cost you.

“People have to stand up and be counted. Players don’t lose their jobs because of these mistakes, it’s managers and coaches.

“They kill you at times and that’s what’s happening to us, we are losing too many soft goals and making everything hard for ourselves.

“I thought we dominated the game up until the last five or 10 minutes and passed United to death at times.

“But we let them back in by trying to run with the ball and giving possession away cheaply.

“Too often we chose the wrong option and were eventually punished for it.”