Time to leap that final hurdle - again
Saturday, May 15, 2010 
I am in Glasgow today for the Scottish Cup final at Hampden. I was also there in 1994, the first and only time Dundee United won the Scottish Cup. We beat Rangers 1-0. We weren't expected to win and the game was won with a goal conceded following a laughable mix-up in the Rangers defence. After the ball cannoned (very slowly) off the post and dribbled out, the goalscorer, Craig Brewster, put it in the net from all of, oh, three feet. Even I could have scored from that distance.
But who cares how we scored? United fans just wanted to win the bloody cup. Before that, we had lost six Scottish Cup and two League Cup finals at Hampden in 20 years. Supporters published a fanzine called The Final Hurdle and winning the Scottish Cup at Hampden became our Holy Grail.
Since then United have lost a further three finals (one Scottish Cup, two League Cup) but those losses didn't hurt anything like the earlier defeats when we had a far better team (good enough, one year, to beat Barcelona home and away in the UEFA Cup), usually outplayed our opponents in the final, yet still lost.
Oddly enough, it was usually Celtic or Rangers we outplayed. Whenever we played a so-called "lesser" team the players seemed to freeze and play their worst game of the season.
That's why I'm not taking anything for granted today. We've just had our best league season since 1997, we're playing Ross County, and we're overwhelming favourites.
Sounds to me like a recipe for disaster. Watch this space.
PS. United have sold 27,000 tickets. Not bad for a club with an average home attendance of 8,500, including away fans. Ross County (average attendance 2,100) have sold 15,000.
Reader Comments (5)
Good luck to Dundee UTD, I hope you have a great day out.
What a load of worrying about nothing, eh?
Scottish footbal ?
I dont know whether to fall over laughing or kick
an haggis round a Manchester slum.
I met you at the Tory conference last year and you seemed quite an intelligeng chap.
Just shows you what drink can do
Keep up the good work.
Longchamps Heavy Horse
Congratulations of a 3-0 win!
Why don't you just move up there?