Promotion push

Just arrived in Dundee for what I hope will be a small celebration if not a full promotion party.

Dundee United, the club I have supported since 1969 when my family moved to Scotland, are one win away from winning the Scottish Championship and I wanted to be there should they cross the line.

Only one club is automatically promoted from the second tier of Scottish football and with three games to play United need just one win to achieve it because they have a far better goal difference (+46) than their nearest rivals, Raith Rovers (+11), who - after last night’s 1-0 win in Inverness - are three points behind United with just two games to play.

Any celebration on my part will be subdued though because the season hasn’t gone as smoothly as we might have hoped.

It began well enough - a 4-0 win under the lights at Arbroath in August - but what should have been a fairly easy league to win (given the size of the clubs United are competing against) became quite a slog.

Every substantial victory (5-0 at Partick Thistle, for example) was matched by an underwhelming draw or depressing defeat (five in total).

Most damaging of all were the home and away losses to Raith Rovers who at one point had taken seven out of nine points from three games against United.

United eventually won the fourth match (2-0) a few weeks ago, but since Christmas neither team seemed to want automatic promotion, such were the number of points they both kept dropping.

Meanwhile, with several journeyman players brought in from other Championship clubs with aim of winning the lower division rather than competing at a higher level thereafter, United are going to struggle next season without significant investment in players.

I can’t see that happening under the present (American) owner who, to be fair, has already invested millions of pounds he will never get back.

In fact, he’s made it clear he doesn’t intend to hang around much longer (another few years at most), and I don’t blame him.

How United got themselves in this mess is a mystery.

The sixth largest club in Scotland has been relegated twice since 2016 and although the more realistic fans know the golden era when United won the old Premier Division (1983), reached the semi-final of the European Cup (1984), and the final of the UEFA Cup (1987) will never be repeated, it’s sad nevertheless to see the club in such a state while city rivals Dundee are in the top six of the Premiership with plans to build a brand new stadium.

Anyway, I’ll put that to one side for now. Promotion is promotion so I’ll try and enjoy the moment, should it effectively happen today. The future can wait.

Apart from winning the Scottish Premier Division in May 1983, which I witnessed first hand, I can’t remember many better moments, football wise, than winning the promotion play-off in May 1996.

Having got relegated the previous year, twelve months after winning the Scottish Cup for the first time (another good day), United had endured a frustrating season, eventually finishing second behind Dunfermline.

That meant a play-off with Partick Thistle who had come second bottom of the Premier Division.

The first leg in Glasgow finished 1-1 and the second leg, in Dundee, drew a capacity crowd (12,000), with all four sides of the ground open to spectators.

I sat behind the goal at the Shed End (which these days is usually closed) and it was a cracking atmosphere, but United played poorly and when Thistle went ahead in the 70th minute many of us were resigned to a second season in the lower division.

(To put this in perspective, United had previously enjoyed an unbroken run in the top division going back to 1959, the year I was born, so prior to 1995 relegation was something that happened only to other clubs.)

But back to the play-off. Roared on by the crowd, United equalised with only 45 seconds left and Tannadice erupted.

In extra time Owen Coyle (who went on to manage Bolton and Burnley) scored the winning goal a few yards in front of me and the promotion party started in earnest.

There was genuine optimism too because while the team had under-performed that season, the club had some good young players who - with the help of three excellent Scandinavians who were brought in the following season - pushed the club to third place in the Premier Division in 1996/97.

Today’s game obviously lacks the jeopardy of that play-off. Also, I anticipate a crowd of around 8,000 with the Shed End and the old Jerry Kerr Stand (built in 1961) closed to spectators, so that will lessen the atmosphere too.

Nevertheless, if United win I imagine there will be a celebration of sorts because in 2020, after four dismal seasons in the Championship (and three play-off defeats), we were denied even that after United were awarded promotion when the season was abandoned due to Covid.

Nice as it was to go up, it was a bit of a damp squib so, fingers crossed, if we win today we can finally have a party, even if the future is less than bright.

Above: My trusty scarf in United colours, hand-knitted for me as a Christmas present in, I think, 1973. I still have it and will be wearing it today. Note one small repair for a pesky cigarette burn!

Below: The 1995/96 play-off second leg at Tannadice. I was behind the goal where Thistle scored from a penalty in the 70th minute and United scored the winner in extra-time.