Dundee 0
Dundee United 3
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Courier .

The worst thing to be in a two-club football city is the losers in a local derby. By that token, any home of a Dark Blues' supporter will have been a place of mourning Saturday night and yesterday.

At Dens. Park on Saturday afternoon down- the-road neighbours United were strictly un- neighbourly as a 3-0 victory hammered home the belief that their best form is fast returning, and highlighted the fact that, yet again, they are on course for a Premier League championship challenge.

Top individual billing in his 25th Premier League or cup encounter against Dundee must go to Paul Hegarty. The United skipper's two goals were headed in with awesome power and put his team in the driving seat.

The fact they came two minutes from the interval and six minutes after it added to the "stun" effect on the opposition.

I firmly believe, however, that though the Hegarty goals effectively ended the game as a contest it was a 10-out-of-10 display by United's back four of Gough, Hegarty, Narey and Malpas in the first half-hour that provided the platform for victory.

No matter what Dundee tried and they really were on full throttle in this spell-United's own "Fab Four" coped. It wasn't desperation stuff either. When necessary the ball was cleared unceremoniously up the park, but it was more often won in the tackle then played calmly out into attacking situations.

In short, an object lesson in defensive football, and for Hegarty his goals were a bonus.

The fact that Dundee, suffering their third defeat in three games, kept trying to the end and never let their heads drop, doesn't satisfy a realist like manager Archie Knox.

He was still critical after the game of the "unprofessional" actions which led to the first two goals-McKinlay's "unnecessary" foul on Gough and Duffy's assuming that a ball was going over and when it didn't, being judged to have fouled Coyne.

These were the actions which led to the free- kicks-taken by Sturrock and Redford from the right and left respectively-from which Hegarty headed his goals.