No sure who the biggest arsehole on the day was...
"Did we win?"
"No, ya clown, the games no even started yet."
"Just leave is. Ah canna get up. I just want to sleep."
17th May 2014, 2:45pm just down the road from Celtic Park as I am woken up having fallen asleep on the bus from The Lee in Glasgow to Parkhead. Paralytic. I was then carried off the bus whereby the blast of air hits me as I stepped outside, took about two paces and just collapsed. Somebody then spray paints my hand as I manage to give the finger to my mates who of course have snapped about half a dozen pictures of me in an absolutely shambolic state.
This was the high point of the day. I wish they'd just left me on the bus tbh.
Somehow I made it to the game, climbed about 4000 steps up to the top tier of the stand behind the goal but not before noticing that I wasn't the only tangerine drunken mess trying to get into the game. The streets and the concourses were littered with them in fact. Maybe it was the torrential rain which kind of confined everyone indoors and left folk with no option but to drink at warp-speed. This was not the happy, sun-kissed drunks of 2010 either. It was hundreds, if not thousands of punters who were smashed. As pished as I was, I could tell that the atmosphere was decidedly edgy and sour. Everything about it felt wrong. I'll go so far as to say that Celtic Park is a shite stadium. I've been three times and the atmosphere has been crap every time (A Scotland game, Utd-Celtic 1-1 and this game). Give me a full Hampden (or Ibrox tbh) any day of the week. Punters make the atmosphere though not stadiums imho. Although I got in not long before the kick off, I have since heard that the build up in the stadium was decidedly un-Scottish Cup Final-like. Our display was the best thing about it although, I am personally in the school of thought that a display does kind of suck a bit of the atmosphere out of things because people tend to concentrate on holding their card up and looking around to others to see how long they should hold it up for. In 2010, the noise and singing when the teams came out and lined up was something else and it just never really let-up thereafter. In 2014, the support just never got going.
The 2014 display was a sensational piece of work:
But give me this any day:
But then again, neither did the team.
In recent years I've became something of an obsessive about Brian Clough. I can't get enough of watching documentaries about him such as 'I Believe in Miracles' the respective ITV and BBC programmes following his death, 'When English Teams Ruled Europe' and of course the brilliant work of fiction based on fact: 'The Damned United'. Ex-players (as well as the great man himself) talk about Clough's philosophy on the game: simplicity. "You head the ball. You win tackles. You get the ball to him, because he can play." Now I really like this. Clough knew he had good players, and trusted them to just go out and do the business. Not over-burdening players with tactics, not worrying too much about the opposition. I saw enough of United managers doing just this in recent years to know players struggle with too many instructions, especially at our level. I wonder if Jackie McNamara saw himself as a bit of a Clough-like figure. By all accounts he didn't really do team-talks, he certainly didn't worry about the opposition (bar maybe the 2015 League Cup Final, which I'll get to later) and just thought we were better than the opposition and should just go out and show it. He certainly sent us out to play the 'beautiful game' like Clough did. Both appeared to try and get into players heads individually, but Clough was also one who could inspire a group collectively. The approach clearly worked for Jackie during much of this season, and the one which followed. Well, up to a point at least. We'd got to a Scottish Cup Final after all, beating three Premiership sides (smashing two of them in fact) and also ending the dreams of a third division team who had hoped for a fairytale first appearance in the final in only their second season in existence. We'd played the most entertaining football I'd seen at Tannadice since the 1980's. In the months of October and November you'd have been forgiven for pinching yourself to make sure this was really happening. Every doubt Peter Houston had expressed in the 'press conference from hell' appeared to be getting dispelled on a weekly basis as the young players he had left for Jackie to inherit went from strength to strength.
But like Clough, Jackie had a nemesis. Tommy Wright's St Johnstone appeared to have a lot in common with Don Revie's Leeds United actually. Both played in a dour, physical style designed to nullify their opponents first and foremost. Both managers were hard men, very pragmatic and tactically aware of all the strengths and weaknesses of the opposition. The divergance is that in Leeds case, they sold themselves short. Leeds were full of top quality players and were clearly the best team in their era but somewhat sullied themselves by their robust 'Dirty Leeds' approach. As Clough said, "They've been champions, but they've not been good Champions, in the sense of wearing the crown well. They've not been loved." Leeds kicked fuck out of you by choice. St Johnstone did it out of neccessity. As well as this, it was clear that Leeds were a much bigger fish than Clough's Derby and he played up to the idea of them as underdogs (similarly with his Forest team against Liverpool). St Johnstone on the other hand were little more than a team of journeymen who played above themselves and should have been underdogs on the day of the cup final. We were the big fish but the fact of the matter is, on the day, we didn't look hungry, nor did we look like we had been convinced by the manager that the approach which had failed on three previous occasions against the spoiling tactics and physical brutality was eventually going to come good. There was no evidence of a shift in emphasis like the clip below (which I know didn't happen but it's the sort of thing we looked like we could have done with on the day). Could you see Jackie telling GMS to be big, be strong, any chance you get, plant Dave fucking Mackay? Given the way Mackay nailed him early doors, I suspect the answer was no.
I'm positive that had we changed our tactics on the day, we'd have won the game. In 2010, Celtic pressed and probed Ross County in the semis and County soaked it up and murdered them on the break. They clearly expected us to do the same thing. Peter Houston saw this and sent us out instead to go long to Jon Daly and play off of flick-ons and second balls. Our back four sat incredibly deep and it made the Hampden pitch enormous for them. This was not our usual game but it completely threw them because it forced them to come out and play which exposed them for what they were: a Championship team who weren't good enough or fit enough to play through us. Our first two goals come from flick-on's with their defence caught well out of their 18 yard box. Brian Graham is not any United fan's favourite Martian but I agree with John Rankin who recently said on the Dode Fox Podcast we should have played him from the start and went direct to him. We also should have started with Morgaro Gomis who played really well in a more pragmaitic 4-3-2-1 formation the week before the final at Celtic Park. Paton and Rankin flanked him that day and in the final they should have been sent out to press and harry second balls coming from Graham and Ciftci and smashing Cregg and Dunne every chance they got to see how they would have liked a taste of their own medicine. The greats like Clough and Wee Jim were not adverse to switching their tactics for certain games (think Clough 'parking the bus' in the away leg at Anfield in the European Cup). I loved hearing Mickey Mellon talking about working on different styles and systems. Jackie appeared to have one way of playing, which, when it worked was fantastic to watch and really effective but his lack of, or stubborness to employ a plan B suggested that Tommy Wright had got into his head and he was determined to prove his way was the right way.
It wasn't always this way. Way back when, St Johnstone tried to play football against us in our first meeting of the season. I remember it because I wasn't meant to be going to the game. My then 4 year old daughter had won a local art competition (she's still a real talent in that area) and I had said to the the missus that I'd swerve the game to watch her getting presented with her prize. As it turned out, the whole presentation, which was taking place at a fete, was dragging on to the point where the missus was thoroughly fed up and said just to go through to the game and so I made it in just after Goodie had put us 1-0 up. As it went on we scored another couple against the run of play and I remember thinking that there was a clear difference in how much football St Johnstone were attempting to play compared with the previous season under Steve Lomas where they really were brutal with two 6ft plus strikers. We won 4-0 in the end with Ryan Dow and Stuart Armstrong impressing. I wonder if Tommy Wright had a think to himself about St Johnstone's approach from this point in, because they were unrecognisable in the other games against us that season (bar maybe the last league game where we were so shite they actually outplayed us). I don't blame Wright btw. I know Cloughie believed football should be played on the grass and not in the clouds but when you've got a team of Murray Davidsons, Frazer Wrights and Paddy Creggs, trying to outpass people like Gauld, Ciftci and Armstrong is maybe not the best tactic. I know why Jackie didn't change it though: it probably would have meant leaving two of Dow, Armstrong or GMS out (never mind Ryan Gauld who didn't even start, mental). What's the worst that would have happened? One or two of them go in huff after it and sign for Celtic?
Anyway, who was the biggest arsehole on the day? Lets look at the candidates:
Jackie: Allowed stubborness to over-ride his judgement in my opinion. Kept on trying the same thing over and over again against St Johnstone even though it wasn't working. Definition of madness stuff. Will make the excuse that of few weeks before when we obliterated Motherwell at Tannadice again, everyone was convinced that we could beat anyone if we played like that. See above.
Me: Went out with the sole desire to get hammered. Although I like a pint or two, I've not went out with that mindset since I was a teenager, and even then it was bravado really since I'd never have the money to drink pints, shots and nips rapido the way I did that day (and that was after a couple of pints in Clarks and 3 cans and a disguised bottle of voddy and coke on the bus to Glasgow). Why was I doing this? Basically, I was suffering badly from work-related stress and had pushed myself to breaking point. 2013-2014 was the first year of the new SQA National Qualifications which were a huge amount of work to implement (although that wasn't my issue) and an absolute nightmare to assess units and Added Value and prep pupils for their Assignments, then reassess, then reassess again (this was the real issue). I personally had big classes, three different levels in the class and was getting verified from the SQA which meant the my marking of kids coursework was being assessed (if this isn't done successfully a hold is placed on the whole school's results, so no pressure or anything). The only problem was, my kids weren't producing anything and deadlines were looming. Little support whatsoever was coming from school (largely because I hadn't really told anyone the difficulties I was having, believing I could graft my way through it and refusing to admit defeat) and I was basically getting up at half 6, marking stuff for an hour, going to work, sitting for a few hours afterwards marking, going home and having tea then sitting from about 7 till 11 marking stuff again night after night for about a month and getting nowhere. I'm of the generation that thinks that you just get on with things and dare I say, the mental health card gets played a bit too quickly by some people, whilst others who really are suffering go unnoticed. All I can say is I was an absolute mess during that period and once again made the monumental mistake of pinning my hopes on United getting a result in order to get me out of my funk. A fucking shitshow ensued (although I wasn't that bad inside the ground by half time) and after the game I had another few drinks on the bus, then upon getting back to Clarks, was pleased to be handed a few free drinks vouchers when I was getting off the bus. Of course I was then stopped at the door from the bouncer asking where my pass was to get in. I showed him the vouchers he had seen me just get from the pub manager 10 seconds before only to be told that was not a pass. The prick wasn't accepting that a) he'd seen me get off the Clarks bus b) my mates all had passes and I must've left in on the bus by mistake. But of course he wasn't having this. By this stage I had well and truly had enough and I casually started flicking the drinks vouchers off his puss like Gambit from the X-Men before storming off in the huff, only to get to the Seagate Bus station and realise I'd left my phone on the bus and had to head back to see if it was still outside Clarks, much to the annoyance of the cunt on the door. I then got a lift home to Forfar where I realised my missus had a full blown party on the go so I ended up storming up the stairs (she didn't even know I was home until late on) not speaking to anyone for the rest of the night. 'The Incredible Hulk' was on the tv. I saw the irony. I had massive fall outs with the wife and at work in the few days that followed this until the point where I did ask for a bit of support at work (not after actually telling my boss I was about to hand in my notice). It not an exaggeration to say that it took me a long time to get over this period and one of the reasons why I didn't do this part in the chronological order is because it was something I didn't want to revisit. I would also add that at the point where I was originally going to write it, Jackie McNamara took seriously unwell and there was no way I could write a piece which would slate him, even if it was simply my opinion.
This is just me getting something off my chest that I've waited 6 years to do. My dad used to say, "Don't do as I do, do as I say." It's a great phrase. Don't go out and get legless when you are stressed and depressed. And sure as fuck, don't pin your hopes on United lifting your mood. Ask for help instead.
Time's a funny thing though. Looking back at photos of the day for the first time in years, I will say this, I had a great time in, 'The Lee.' What I can remember anyway.
I think the boy on the door was the biggest arsehole on the day 😉
Anyway, back to the football:
A Quick Recap
Season 2013-14 started with a glut of new signings. Much needed given the stale nature of things the previous season. Even Peter Houston's departure and Jackie McNamara's arrival had seen only a brief (albeit fucking hilarious) new manager bounce against SEVCO followed by a couple of wins and another horsing at Parkhead before the mediocrity started to set back in again. What we did see though was some of the younger players starting to get more regular game time. The slightly older Stuart Armstong (thankfully), Ryan Dow (surpisingly since he looked like he was heading out the door) and the younger, much-vaunted Ryan Gauld and John Souttar also made appearances, perhaps most notably in the top-six decider against Aberdeen where both looked like serious prospects. Souttar's full debut was in this game and was as good a debut as I have seen from a young United player. The bit where an Aberdeen player (McGinn I think) was racing through on goal and Souttar just casually beats him for pace and clears the ball had us all misty-eyed about another United centre half who used to do that... Winning this produced incredible scenes, of relief as much as joy tbh with rumours of financial trouble if we'd lost. The week that followed saw us FINALLY give Celtic a game in the Scottish Cup semi final. More than that in fact, we should have won and some of the football being played by United that day was sensational, particularly GMS's goal following him and Gauld going from their own box taking the piss out of the entire Celtic team. It's not unrealistic to say that had Gav Gunning and Johnny Russell played that day, we'd have won the match (although I reckon Motherwell would have beaten us in the final, they were not a kick in the arse off the level we were in 2010). However, the season completely petered out after that and by the last game of the season against Celtic (again) the team had a bit of a tired and sorry look about it with future lockdown Zoom quiz picture round questions like Luke Johnson, Rory Boulding, Willie Robertson, Robert Thomson and Marcus Tonstrand all having came and went during the final weeks and months of a decidedly mediocre season.
New Broom Sweeps Clean
In came young Queens Park pair: Andy Robertson 😜, a left back and Aidan Connolly (son of one of my all-time United heroes Paddy) who was loaned out almost immediately. Paul Paton and Chris Erskine both came from Partick Thistle and big striker Brian Graham from Raith Rovers (I felt heart sorry for Graham when he was unveiled to a completely non-plussed support on the last day of the previous season at half-time in the Celtic match). Unknowns Callum Butcher and Kudos Oyenuga (who I think came from thon town where Gavin and Stacey is set) arrived after one of those exit trial games. Nadir Ciftci was a player from Holland who had played for Portsmouth in the Championship and had been on the fringes of the Turkish squad and was the kind of exciting foreign signing that you dream about and ususally turns out to be utter shite at United. However, he scored a peach in a friendly down at Wigan and punters were talking in excited tones. Finally, there were some returning players; Mark Wilson (which I (and I alone it would seem) was excited about because he was a cracking player first time around), Morgaro Gomis following an unsuccessful spell in England (this got everyone excited) and finally the signing coup every fan dreams about; the bank-breaker, the prodigal son returning: DAVID GOODWILLIE!!!!! On loan. Looking back, United should have asked the Daily Record and The S*n to contribute to his not inconsiderable salary, given how much money his return appeared to make for them judging by the column inches they dedicated to him.
Bar the St Johnstone win, the month of August was crap though. The Partick away game was exciting enough and at the game I was very impressed with the laddie Robertson at left back and the mad bastard Butcher at centre half, simply for managing to disguise his assault on a Partick player and avoid the easiest sending off you'll ever see. We tried to play a 4-1-4-1 in this one with Paton the only midfielder playing behind Dow, Ciftci, Gauld and Armstrong with Goodie up front. Whilst this sounded great on paper, in reality the creative '4' behind the striker just seemed to get in one anothers road whilst Paton was completely over-run since none of the 5 in front of him were bothering their arse to track back in the second half. Goodie meanwhile was getting the 'treatment' from the Thistle fans and didn't really look suited to playing up front on his own. He appeared to have doubled in size and just looked like a big hulk of muscle but had zero mobility. This was not the Goodie who played Slask Wrocuntyhooks two years earlier and was absolutely razor sharp, zipping around the forward line terrorising defenders. Boy I work beside served in the (illegal) Iraq war and talks about how the British soldiers were all strong but wiry and really mobile and could run and fight all day with full kit on whereas the American soldiers were all ridiculously musclebound; so much so in fact that they needed helicopters, jeeps or troop carriers to take them any greater distance than about 100 yards because they would be comically breathing out of their arses trying to carry their own body weight never mind their kit. Well, Goodie basically came back from Blackburn looking like a Yank soldier sadly. I wonder about some of these clowns who claim to be Sports Scientists these days. The support didn't exactly distinguish themselves in the ICT home game either, giving Chris Erskine really poor treatment both before and particularly when he was subbied. It's fair to say, Erskine's confidence took about a year to recover after that (he was the ultimate confidence player and also clearly lacked heart, but in the Celtic 2-1 win and 6-2 derby he was outstanding in 2014-15). Granted though, we were crap once again. We did a bit better by all accounts away to Hibs, beat St Johnstone, struggled past Dumbarton away in the League Cup (a bit of foreshadowing here) then lost to Celtic in a game most notable for Paul Paton repeatedly doing a full 180 degree turn rather than to simply use his left foot and for Gav Gunning getting sent off for the crime of being kicked by Virgil Van Dijk.
However, September came and suddenly, we started to click. The televised Ross County game saw Ciftci get played up front and Jackie take the brave decision to leave Goodie out despite the big financial outlay and probable pressure from his parent club to play him. It also saw the start of the attacking '3' of GMS, Gauld and Armstrong. I'm not ashamed to say that I went from being a bit resigned about us to a Jackie convert by the end of this match, we really were that good. Strength and intelligence from Ciftci, Gauld's unbelievable balance, touch and awareness and Armstrong and GMS's movement and not inconsiderable skills of their own made us a joy to watch. We also were playing out from the back through Souttar and Robertson which could at times be a bit hairy if we lost the ball or were caught on the counter, but at times we were playing with 6 attackers, two of which were defenders! Whilst this was not quite the start of the 4 goal run, since we had a few stuttering results after that, you could tell that this team had the makings of something exciting indeed. The draw with a Motherwell team that had swept us aside towards the end of the previous season (Ciftci breaking the net and Andy Robertson scoring 'that' goal) showed, that if we could just start keeping them out at our end, the attacking side of things would take care of itself. A Goodie inspired win with a lot of fringe players against Partick in the the League Cup (in the red kit) was followed by a 0-0 at Tynecastle. However, October started with a win against Killie then a defeat against Aberdeen up at Pittodrie in the pissing rain. It was the first time that season a team had set out solely to stop us playing football by any means necessary. It would not be the last time it would happen. Early days though so the manager had time on his side to adjust to these tactics. It was also the first time I sampled a craft beer (Innis and Gunn original) on the journey home. It would not be the last time that would happen either.
Four Score and Seven Years Ago
When I was a kid in under 12s we played in a tournament in France (1991, the day of the Utd v Motherwell Cup Final) and in one game we played OGC Nice in about 100 degree heat and every single one of them was like grease lightening and had touch and technique way beyond us. I only played the second half (20 minutes long) and have never been so tired after a game where I think I touched the ball once and chased shadows the rest of the time (incredibly I think we only lost 2-0 too). I imagine this must have been what it felt like to play against United from 26th October until the 21st of December 2013. When we hammered St Mirren 4-0 I was not really able to take it in and at the time was probably more annoyed about the chances we had missed (Brian Graham had loads) and it wasn't until getting outside and speaking to others that I realised how excited people were about the performance and that I was being REALLY hard on the team. Ryan Gauld in particular was magnificent. His ability to take the ball into feet, his weight of pass, the drop of the shoulder and his balance were something to behold. Most of our play was coming out from the back too. All four defenders were decent with the ball at their feet and Souttar in particular would step out from the back and pick 20-30 yard passes out to Ciftci or Gauld's feet. No passing endlessly across the back shite here. Andy Robertson meanwhile was effectively an extra attacker and his link up with Armstrong and GMS were a joy to behold. Si Ferry described playing against Armstrong as like marking a racehorse so trying to deal with him Robertson and GMS bombing towards you clearly had opponents shitting themselves during this period. The belief wasn't quite there though as we lost to ICT in the League with Ciftci getting sent off for a kiddy-on assault on the referee which was eventually over-turned and a draw at Celtic Park that I attended for once where we should have won. Tbh, I was wondering what all the fuss was about against Celtic since we were totally comfortable in the game and if we'd really gone for it, we'd have won comfortably in my opinion. I reckon if we'd played this game about 2-3 weeks later, Scottish football's worst record would have disappeared in spectacular style. Of course, had Brian Graham not made the most bizarre attempt to hit a volley I have ever seen and just headed the bloody thing the record would have gone anyway. I never considered John Rankin's belief that had we won this match we'd have won the cup final and that it was a Celtic Park thing rather than a St Johnstone thing. It's an interesting viewpoint although I'm not sure if I 100% agree with it since we actually played with a good degree of confidence in both league matches there that season. It's weird though, when Rado tried to be clever in the last minute and pick out an attacker (I think it was either Goodie or Dowser) and succeeded in finding their player you just knew what was about to happen. If he'd held onto the ball and just slowed things down... FFS Rado. That night at the services at Stirling I bumped into a United player who shall remain nameless with his family and I told them not to be disappointed because we had played really well. The player politely said thanks but was cut off by his relative saying that if it hadn't been for, "that useless bastard Graham," we'd have won the game! Ooft.
It's a pity I wasn't at the 4-0 away to Motherwell since most who were there say was the best of the season, and the best for many a year. The week after against Partick, Ryan Gauld gave the best individual performance I'd seen from a United player having a hand in every goal with his pass to Graham for the fourth goal straight out of the Stewart Beedie school of through balls (the finish was a cracker as well). Two further hammerings of Kilmarnock and one over Hearts followed with noticeable increases in crowds. You can talk about prices, offers, matchday experiences and so on, but ultimately the best way to attract punters is winning games, scoring loads of goals and providing real entertaining attacking football which we were doing in spades. Jackie McNamara, as manager has to take credit here since his team selections and methods were clearly working at this point.
Squad Rotation/Needless Tinkering
However, things started to unravel over Christmas. We were due to play Aberdeen on New Years Day and it would appear that Jackie had decided to rest players in the two games which came before it in order that they would be fresh since this game was second vs third. It meant that in the St Johnstone game 8 changes were made to the team with boys who had hardly played like Butcher, Erskine and Dillon along with boys who were only getting minutes from the bench like Dow, Gomis, Graham and Goodie all started in an unfamiliar 4-4-2 formation. The team lines were like a red rag to a bull for Tommy Wright and St Johnstone and they stated afterwards that they had taken it as an insult that United thought they could just put out a second string team and still win (I mind when Jim McLean did this before the UEFA Cup final and we still beat Hibs, you had to keep your ticket stubb to get priority for the final, slightly better reserves in those days). Butcher getting sent off didn't help but tbh, we never looked like winning anyway that day. Rado should have saved their second goal though and sub John Souttar getting turned inside out a few times was not a good omen. Again, one wonders if we had put a stronger team out that day and won the match what impact this would have had on ours and St Johnstone's mindsets for the rest of the season. And after all that, we still lost the Aberdeen game in the pissing rain and sleet. Aberdeen were very much driven on by Barry Robson and Willo Flood and although they didn't have as much quality as us, their mindset and experience always seemed to be stronger. If Robson had played for us we'd have won the cup this season, I have no doubt about that.
The Goodies
Two draws and a shite defeat followed in January as our confidence completely nose-dived. However, a couple of new players were recruited in Farid El Alagui, a striker who had caused us problems a few years before in a league cup game against Falkirk before moving down south and Curtis Good, a centre half from Newcastle who was on the fringes of the Australian national squad. Both worked well by taking the pressure off of John Souttar and allowing Ciftci to play in the three in some games to again spare Gauld who had also shaded. We started to dig out results again and you could see the confidence returning. Good in particular looked a tremendous player, strong in the air and on the deck, excellent positional awareness and for five games made us look much more solid than we had been all season. He was so good that he got capped for Australia, got injured and was never seen again. Joking aside it was a truly horrendous piece of luck involving a freak (hip?) injury which pretty much ended his career as a top level player. Again, he was one who probably would have improved us in the St Johnstone cup final and I doubt he'd have lost out in the air to Anderson for their first goal. You have to wonder if it was fate that was conspiring against us as much as anything else. Going out the door was Goodie with United and Blackburn deciding to cut their losses with a loan deal which promised so much but delivered little. Goodie just wasn't suited to the way we were trying to play.
Another comfortable win over our Motherwell bitches (their record against St Johnstone was better than ours that season too, weird how that happens) and a televised win over Hibs where we missed two penalties and still won 3-1 with Gav Gunning doing the roly-poly celebration was followed by the best performance I seen from us that season away to Inverness in the Cup. They were another one of the teams who tried to kick us off the park and for the first time, our style overcame it. Ciftci, Armstrong and GMS terrorised the fuck out of them in a 5-0 victory. I was thinking that the 4 goal blitzes were about to restart. Who would be our next victims?
Oh for fucks sake.
We actually rallied well after this game again and continued to grind out good results in March. However April was mixed with a defeat to Celtic (standard), another fucking defeat off them up in Perth (worst performance of the season from us by miles) with Rado taking the idea of a dress rehearsal literally and gifting them an identical goal to the one he'd lose in the cup final. In between however, was a game against SEVCO that will stand out in the minds of arabs forever and is detailed here. Magic. Jackie in my opinion did well here to keep the players minds on the job given the disgraceful hun media campaign to unsettle us with every ex-player (all from the dead club of course), the SFA making us play the game at Ibrox and naming Bobby Madden as ref. The SCENES when Nads scores the winner are just pure joy. The other game in April was a 5-1 win over Motherwell. I'm sure you can see a pattern developing here. They were just tailor made for United because they tried to go toe-to-toe against us. No dark arts, no shitehousing whatsoever. To think people wanted to see McCall get the United job not long ago too.
The cup final took over our mindset as we indulged in the usual pantomime of resting regular players under the pretence of giving fringe players the chance to 'stake their claim' for a cup final place (what a load of pish), missing out on Europe as a result which was a shame because I'd have loved to see this team in a European game. Although, Ryan Dow's terrific performance against Motherwell had clearly confirmed his place at the expense of Ryan Gauld. A move which divided the crowd. On the one hand, Gauld's form was nothing like as good as in the 4 goal spell and at Perth in April he was utter shite tbh. On the other hand, the flash of brilliance against SEVCO to set up our second goal was something which set him apart from anyone else in the squad, Dow included. Overall, if you took our results against Aberdeen and St Johnstone (and Celtic but that's a given) away, it was a terrific season. And yet, given that the other cup semi that year was St Johnstone v Aberdeen it was like they were playing for the privilege of beating us in the final.
And we end up back at the start. You don't need to watch the next bit. In fact I'd not even watched the goals until about a year ago. And, yet, for much of this season we were like pigs in shit. For a manager and team to deliver so much excitement, be so deservedly lauded and rewarded (I was at the Rep when Jackie's new contract was announced, people were throwing roses at his feet) and ultimately come away with nothing to show for it was criminal. Was it style over substance? 'The Emperors New Clothes'?
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