Bowman supports a United Europe

FORGIVE the surprise. Asked how his golf game had gone, Dave Bowman, says it wasn't too bad, he squared the match. Hence the shock. After all this is a born winner, a man who would harry and bark at team-mates throughout games if he didn't believe they were giving their all, a player who was never shy of informing referees if he felt they were making flawed decisions which jeopardised his side's chances of victory. Draws, like defeats, were not acceptable to a competitor such as Bowman.

He laughs. "Yeah, you have a point. But I wasn't playing well and at least I didn't lose. I still hate losing. I can't even let the kids beat me at the swimming. I have to win."

As a player, it was an addiction he joined Dundee United to satisfy. Moving from Coventry, he wanted to play at a club which was consistently vying for honours and the Tannadice team fitted the bill.

The club had reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in both 1981/82 and 1982/83 and the European Cup semis in 1983/84. When they swaggered all the way to the UEFA Cup final, in 1986/87, in Bowman's first season on Tayside, it seemed simply the norm. "When I first came here, and this attitude seems bad now, but it was taken for granted that we would be playing in Europe and not just one or two rounds, we always believed that we could get a run going. We did it in '87 when we went all the way and only fell at the last. We never ever felt we were up against a team that was too good. It was bad but we did take it for granted. It's good that players here now can get to experience even a bit of that," says the United coach with one eye on this Thursday's UEFA Cup tie against MyPa-47, of Finland. "It's a fantastic experience and we had some great European nights here. I'm sure the supporters would love it if those nights came back again. It's a shame for the ones who haven't experienced being in Europe."

It's eight years since the club last ventured into the European fray, meaning that the majority who take to the field in Finland on Thursday will be novices, while young fans who pack into Tannadice for the return leg will get their first taste of the elite competition, but hopefully not their last, according to Bowman.

"Looking back now, why we didn't realise how special it was... we just took it for granted. We were beating Barcelona and teams like Borussia Moenchengladbach, who were a very good team at the time. We thought it was just another game. I remember Heggie [Paul Hegarty], who's older than me, telling me to really take it in but I don't think many of us really did. We probably didn't see the need, we thought it happened all the time. But now, looking back, and it's the same with the Scottish Cup, you realise eventually that it doesn't happen every year for you and you have to really, really appreciate it at the time.

"That's what the players have to realise now. It's a great opportunity for them, European football always has been, but especially now, it's a lot more glamorous because of the group stage, so it would be a great achievement for them to get into that. You saw what happened last year, Hearts weren't far off from qualifying for the next stage, so it can definitely be done."

Squaring golf games may be deemed acceptable as he mellows, but it says everything about Bowman the footballer that the ultimately fruitless final against Gothenburg fails to make it into his top three favourite matches. Those slots are reserved for games he won.

"I don't think it matters if you lose to Kilmarnock on a normal Saturday or Celtic or Gothenburg in a final, it's all the same in the end. If you don't win, you're a loser. People say finals are great occasions to be in but not if you lose. I didn't enjoy losing. I've never watched any final that we lost, not even the European one. What's the point? It wasn't a great event, it was a defeat.

"The UEFA Cup final, yes, it was great to get to it, but, again, if you don't win it, it's not that great. The Partick Thistle play-off game was probably a bigger game in my view because we won and got the club back into the SPL. European nights are big nights but only if you win. We had some really enjoyable nights and some great results but probably the best was the semi-final, beating Borussia Moenchengladbach, that was really big and you appreciated that because it got you to the final.

"But unless you win the final... what does it matter? You only get another runners-up medal. I gave mine to the club because it was buried in a drawer. I didn't keep any of my medals. I didn't want the loser's ones [as well as the UEFA Cup bauble, there were three Scottish Cup and one League Cup runners-up medals] and I decided that as the club had all of them, they should have my winners' medal when we finally did win a Scottish Cup. I actually left my losers medal in Hampden one year because I didn't want to take it home with me, but I've always said the SFA had it in for me - they must have, because they sent it out to me!"

At the club for 12 years, accumulating a tally of 429 appearances and six caps, it seems strange that he has only one winners' medal to show for it. What he does have, though, is the memories of the European nights where glamour and victory sat side by side and, while warning the current crop of the lows which greet dismissal from one of the greatest club competitions, he will entice them with the tales of victory.

"European nights are different and as a player you can't even put your finger on why they are different but they are. I used to love them. I don't know if it's because it's midweek and early on it's usually good weather and nice nights to play football. It's a big thing and the supporters treat it like a big thing and really get behind the team and hopefully they all enjoy it and the players appreciate it."

With the bread and butter of domestic football still the priority, though, what Bowman doesn't want is the Scottish Cup final appearance in May and this European sojourn to help disguise the ills of last term. "I just hope that this doesn't paper over the cracks. Last season was disastrous. Okay, we got to a semi-final and a final but we didn't win either trophy so it means nothing. Even the final, if you don't win it, it's just another game. I know, I've been there and it makes no difference unless you win it, only then does it become a big achievement. I know the time we did win it, we had struggled in the league and it did paper over the cracks and that doesn't do you any favours in the long run.

"But, last season, the players will have got a fright, playing the last game to survive in the Premiership. It was the worst game I've ever had to watch in my life. I remember when we played Partick Thistle out here, when it was the two-legged play-off and we were second in the First Division and had to beat them to go up. I think we were a goal down with about a minute left and big Welshy [Brian Welsh] scored. It was so tense and the way I felt on the last day of last season must have been the same for supporters that day but when you're playing you feel you can contribute. When you're watching, you're always waiting for the worst, for the ball to go back to Tony Bullock and go bouncing over his foot and into the net, you know that anything could happen and you can't do anything to stop it.

"But players have heeded the lesson. No disrespect to other teams in the league but we have a better squad than a lot of them. But you only struggle because you don't perform." Self-belief and over-confidence should not be confused, though. Winners have the former, losers usually suffer from the latter. Bowman knows. The medal collection may not back up the theory but make no doubt, he's a winner.

Taken from the Scotsman