Dundee Utd4–0Cowdenbeath

In the 2nd Round of the League Cup, the Tannadice men faced their second Fife opponents of this seasons competition. Jim McLean went with the same starting eleven from the weekend's draw with Morton, with Davie Dodds replacing John Reilly on the subs bench.

After early efforts from Dave Narey and Eamonn Bannon, United took the lead after eight minutes, with Paul Sturrock breaking the deadlock with an acrobatic overhead kick after Paul Hegarty got his head to a Ralph Milne corner. Cowdenbeath threatened, going close with a Tierney header, before Eamonn Bannon's 18th minute header from a Milne cross made it 2-0. United continued to dominate, and Cowden keeper Ray Allan made a couple of great saves from Milne and Derek Stark. Sturrock wheeled onto a Payne pass but shot over in the 32nd minute, and Allan saved again from a Milne header as the visitors did well to keep the score down to only two at the interval.

Both sides missed reasonable chances on the restart, and in the 55th minute United were awarded a penalty when Sturrock was fouled by Tierney in the box. However, Allan pulled off a superb save from Bannon's spot kick. Two minutes later Eamonn Bannon atoned for that miss by volleying home a Billy Kirkwood cut-back. Cowdenbeath were unlucky not to pull one back, when a Liddell header from a corner hit McAlpine and rebounded for a corner, and two minutes later Marshall came close with a fine effort. Captain Paul Hegarty added a fourth in the 67th minute, powerfully heading home from a Kirkwood cross. Before the end, Allan again saved superbly to prevent Bannon claiming his hat-trick, and again to stop a Payne free-kick. United had now scored 13 goals in 3 matches in the competition so far, with the 2nd leg still to come at Central Park in three days time.