DUNDEE UNITED’S IRISH manager Jim Goodwin claimed avoiding the drop remained the target despite his side moving third in the Scottish Premiership with a late derby triumph at Dens Park.

Sam Dalby’s 88th-minute winner completed a comeback and United’s 2-1 victory sent them above Goodwin’s former club Aberdeen, who went a ninth game without a win earlier in the day when they lost at home to Ross County.

Waterford native Goodwin is well and truly keeping his feet on the ground despite joining the Dons on 34 points and moving ahead on goal difference.

“If you’d have told me that 10 weeks ago, I wouldn’t have believed you, given how far out in front they were,” he said.

“But we’ve been very, very consistent and I think Aberdeen is probably a team that we look at and I remind the players of that: you can’t get carried away.

“You can’t get complacent because that shows if you do lose a couple of games and confidence goes, then you can go on the kind of run that Aberdeen are on.

“Enjoy the moment, but we won’t get carried away.

“We won’t allow ourselves to think all of a sudden we’ve become this brilliant team.

“We’re getting results because of the hard work and the resilience that the players are showing. We’ve created a great culture within the group and that will carry us a long way.

“I wish the season was over now to be honest with you, because that would be a remarkable season for a newly-promoted team.

“But we’re not talking about European places. We’re not talking about top six. I know it’s really boring and probably not what you guys want to hear, but it’s still about getting the points required to make sure that we’re a Premiership team next season.

“There’s a target that we’ve set for ourselves. Once we hit that, then we can start thinking about a little bit higher up.

“We’ll enjoy the position that we’re in at the moment, but it’s far too early.

“There’s still a hell of a lot of football to be played. A lot of teams around us, I would imagine, this month will strengthen.”

Dundee opened the scoring through Simon Murray’s 61st-minute penalty but were pegged back four minutes later when Vicko Sevelj nodded home his first United goal following a long throw.

Home manager Tony Docherty said: “The overriding emotion at the moment is one of real frustration and anger, because we should have won that game.

“I thought the first half we were excellent, we dominated the play and we should have come in probably at least a goal up.

“They changed their shape a wee bit in the second half, but I think we do enough to get us justifiably in front.

“And then we find a way to allow our opponents into the game.

“We’ve got to manage it better, it shouldn’t go out for a throw in, it should go back to the goalkeeper, calm things down like we’ve been doing all afternoon.

“And then the throw-in, we get first contact on it and then we just switch off, second phase, and it’s criminal that, and it changes the momentum of the game.

“Even at one-each we’ve got a fantastic chance, with big Seb (Palmer-Houlden) through on goal.

“To lose the second goal in the dying stages of the game, it’s really, really frustrating for me.”