Jim Goodwin is keen to sign a pacey striker this month as Dundee United look to build on an impressive first half the season.

Premiership top scorer Sam Dalby took his tally to 10 goals in 13 matches with a late winner at Dundee that lifted United to third place, but boss Goodwin is looking for more variety up front.

“We’ve got a certain area in the pitch that I think we need to strengthen,” he said.

“I think at the moment we’ve got four strikers at the club that are all very similar – (Owen) Stirton, (Louis) Moult, (Jort) van der Sande and Dalby.

“I think we need a little bit of pace at the top end of the pitch. It’s something that we spoke about before the window shut in the summer and unfortunately just missed out on one before the window closed.

“But that’s certainly an area that we will look to try and sort out because there’s times during the games where we need to be able to go and lengthen it and we probably don’t have that option at the moment.

“We’re certainly not bringing someone in to replace anybody. It’s just bringing someone in to try and strengthen the group.

“And once we get the likes of (Craig) Sibbald and Moult back from injury, then we’ll put ourselves in a really strong position.

“Louis is probably a couple of weeks and Craig Sibbald probably another three or four.”