Dundee United 0
Dundee 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Newspaper extract from The Courier .

If a goalkeeper's stock can be measured by his ability to produce an outstanding save after a long period of virtual inactivity, then, on the evidence of Saturday's Dundee derby, both city clubs are blessed with keepers of quality.

Bobby Geddes and Billy Thomson have silenced their critics with some superb perform- ances this season and it was they who provided the highlights of the Tannadice game.

On a bitterly cold afternoon which saw one ball boy taken ill and the others subsequently issued with an additional layer of clothing, the 0-0 scoreline in no way reflected the endeavours of both sides.

However, it wasn't until the last half-hour or so that this game really reached the high standard expected of it.

Dundee had hassled and harried United and should have been in front, but they were left owing much to keeper Geddes when he produced a quite marvellous save to turn away an Eamonn Bannon pile-driver.

Not to be outdone. Billy Thomson showed his class moments later as he dived to his right to deny Graham Harvey.

Once the dust had settled it emerged that Thomson had played most of the match with a strained muscle in his side, an injury that places a question mark over his chances of facing Motherwell on Wednesday.

Thomson was actually "beaten" four times in the match. On the first occasion John Brown was adjudged to have fouled the keeper before forcing the ball home.

Later, he and Jim Smith saw net-bound headers knocked off the line by Maurice Malpas and, in the closing minutes, Ray Stephen raced on to a long pass from McKinlay and chipped Thomson only to see the ball hit the top of the cross-bar.

Albert Kidd, who'd taken the place of Stuart Rafferty in Dundee's line-up, squandered a couple of great chances, too, but don't get the idea that United didn't offer plenty in attack.

Ian Redford missed a snip just before half- time, Davie Dodds headed over the bar when he appeared set to score, a seemingly net-bound Paul Sturrock shot was somehow blocked by Duffy and a John Holt 25-yarder was well stopped by Geddes.

All this before they were denied what looked a penalty in the closing seconds when Glennie brought down Sturrock inside the area.

Dundee worked like beavers for the points but United, though not reaching the heights of earlier performances against Aberdeen and Celtic, had the better of the closing stages and a draw was just about right.

"Dundee were the far better team in the first half, but it was much more even after the interval," said Jim McLean.

At the end of the day I'm quite happy to get a point out of it."

Archie Knox reckoned his side should have won.

"That was the best we've played and the most chances we've created against United since I became manager and though a draw was fair enough we ought to have won," were his words.

"Despite the lack of goals, it was, in my opinion, a really good derby game and our performance and the collection of another away point will have pleased the fans."

That was a fair point for, at time up, it was the Dark Blue supporters among the 14.869 crowd who were applauding their side from the park while the rival fans were, by comparison, fairly quiet.

The Tannadice faithful clearly expected more from their favourites, but it's worth remembering United have come through a really testing spell this month and taken six points out of eight from Rangers, Aberdeen, Celtic and Dundee-and this after a disappointing exit from Europe.

Referee Jim Duncan chose to take the names of five players on Saturday, but that in no way reflected the spirit in which the game was played.