Good-book time at Tannadice

Paul Sinclair

5 May 1997

Dundee United .......1 Hearts .................... 0

You can tell how meaningless this fixture was when Hearts manager Jim Jefferies, one of life's great competitors, is smiling after a 1-0 defeat at Tannadice.

''We did not create as much as I would have hoped but I was delighted with the application of my players, particularly the young ones,'' Jefferies said, his mouth strangely turning upwards at the corners.

He, like his United counterpart Tommy McLean, had taken the opportunity to blood some younger players.

In a litany he praised Scott Murray and Robert Horn, Stuart Callaghan and Gary Naysmith, and then talked of the joys of seeing young players expressing themselves, free from the pressures of a meaningful premier division game.

The atmosphere was surreal, and became more so when McLean came in.

He, too, smiled.

''Very happy with the performance,'' he said.

''The youngsters played well, they brought enthusiasm to our play, and I am delighted.'' Two delighted football managers in one press conference tells you something odd was going on.

If this was an example of youth expressing itself, then the vocabulary is frighteningly limited.

The managers were, in truth, looking at a different game.

For them, quite rightly, the only thing that mattered was that their young players looked the part, and they did.

For United, Paul Walker looked to have similar skills as a wing player to his manager, and Craig Easton had a decent game in midfield.

But if you were not at Tannadice to measure the progress of your youth charges, if you had gone for entertainment, then you should have taken the precaution of having a good book with you.

There was a degree of openness certainly, created probably because the players were not taking the game that seriously, and decided not to plunge into tackles or close each other down too quickly.

But in terms of the creation of goal-scoring chances, this match was a failure.

In all, each side created one real opportunity, both missed.

The goal was as unexpected as it was welcome though, when United's Gary McSwegan, more than 20 yards out, hit a right foot shot which went in off a post with less than 20 minutes left.

It seemed, though, that the spectators were watching a private experiment.

Both managers were really looking to see if their reserves will be able to compete in the first team next season.

Hearts found out that the defence which won the reserve league can cope reasonably well with one of the premier division's quicker forward lines, if they were not playing at full tilt.

Stephen Frail and Kevin Thomas continue to be nursed back to health, although it is still too early to tell if they will recover to be the players they were before both suffered severe knee injuries.

Dundee United suggested that their conveyor belt of young talent remains in good form.

The players who seem to have won them the youth league, Easton and Steven Thompson, were not out of place.

But surely after a long, dour season, we could have been rewarded in a fixture of little import with greater entertainment.

This match had all the excitement of a pre-season friendly on a tour of the highlands.

Perhaps that is what we are condemned to - a season of stifling tension in the premier division, bracketed at either end with boring matches in which young players are initiated in the ways of dullness.

There may have been at Tannadice a few older supporters on either side who can still remember the remarkable cup tie in the sixties between these two same teams, at the same ground, which ended 6-5 to Hearts.

Perhaps a viewing of the film of that match would have been more beneficial in the education of those who made their debuts.

Next game: Dundee United- Rangers (h).

Hearts - Rangers (h).

Taken from the Herald