Jim Goodwin admitted seeing teenager Owen Stirton scoring for Dundee United was a “Roy of the Rovers” moment.
The 17-year-old came off the bench in the 91st minute against Ross County to make his Premiership debut with the Terrors 2-0 up thanks to goals from Luca Stephenson and Sam Dalby.
Stirton netted with his first touch and then ran to celebrate with manager Goodwin, who likened it to a storyline involving the comic-book character.
The Irishman said: “I was delighted for him – he will get a bit of stick off the boys for coming over to me, no doubt!
“It was a really proud moment for the kid and for his family. To score it at that end in front of the home supporters, it’s Roy of the Rovers-type stuff really.
“Since coming into the club 18 months ago as a full-time player, he’s been pretty much with my first team because I think that much of him.
“Physically he’s still developing and has a lot to do in terms of the technical aspect of the game.
“I believed he would get an opportunity in the last few minutes. There’s no better way to get your first Premiership goal, just stick your head on the ball two yards out.
“I’m sure he will remember that moment for a long, long time.”
Ross County boss Don Cowie admitted the Staggies have to find a way to start hitting the back of the net.
The Highland outfit failed to score for the third game in a row following 0-0 draws with Hibernian and St Mirren, and Cowie insists that has to change.
“I’m really disappointed,” he said. “I thought it was a really even game in the first half so I was happy with the performance.
“I thought we were really good, defended well and were a threat. I was in a good place at half-time with what I was seeing.
“The challenge in the second half was always going to be United shooting into their own fans.
“We managed to withstand that in the first 10 minutes of the second half then get a foothold back in the game. So to concede in the time and manner we did was the real disappointment.
“We had a long time to get back into it and deal with that adversity – but we didn’t deal with it well at all.
“We want to score goals and win games of football. We’ll keep working on it and try to improve, be better.
“We have been really sound defensively recently without scoring goals, so it’s about getting that balance and both sides of the game.”
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