United bring joy to Tayside

10 Aug 1992

WHISPER it on Tayside, but Dundee United have seldom been quoted in any equation concerning which side will win the top honours for the current season.

The best they can hope for, say the cynics, is to play the role of opponents who will help decide the resting places of the silverware.

That wily old student of football Jim McLean was actually smiling when voicing the opinion that "I am really excited about the future here at Tannadice," after Saturday's 1-1 home draw with Hearts.

So he should be after watching 45 minutes of the most compelling and entertaining premier-division action seen at Tannadice in almost a decade.

Not since the balmy days of that title-winning run in the 1982-83 season has there been such a buzz of expectation as was enjoyed by the initial Tangerine audience in United's newly-opened £2.4m stand during Saturday's first half.

Skipper Maurice Malpas confirmed that the air of confidence was not reserved solely to the supporters when he claimed "there is a new freshness sweeping around the playing staff these days, and it is showing in our performances on the field.

"Although we always relate to a game plan there is now a freedom for the players to go out and enjoy themselves, and so far it has paid off in our three opening fixtures."

Five points were produced from United's first week of action, and it would have been six had it not been for a display of the highest order on Saturday from Hearts keeper Henry Smith.

His single-handed defiance of the host's early assault restricted them to just a Duncan Ferguson headed strike in the fourteenth minute.

That allowed Joe Jordan's visitors the breathing space to muster forces for a second-half comeback forged out of a steely determination.

Craig Levein's nodded equaliser in the seventy-first minute merely rewarded those efforts.

While the contributions made by the players of both sides proved to be a credit to the high standards demanded these days at premier-division level, every silver living is accompanied, so to speak, by a cloud.

Sadly, match official Bill Young provided it with an over-officious approach to what was one of the less physical contests between the two old rivals.

Hearts Ally Mauchlen was sent off for a second bookable offence while five others were cautioned for what can only be described as trivial infringements of the laws.

0 Meanwhile, McLean breathed a sigh of relief yesterday when he was told that Ferguson had been released from hospital after treatment.

The Scotland striker was suffered a head knock and blurred vision in Saturday's game.

Taken from the Herald