Dundee Utd 1
Aberdeen 2
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

The flu bug which had been going round the dressing room through the week had affected Maurice Malpas, Alan Main, John Clark and Darren Jackson, but all were able to play except the last named. Hamish French stepped into the breach left by the absence of our top scorer for another vital New Firm derby. In fact it was Hamish French who carved out the opening to allow us to take an early lead. He embarked on a diagonal run across the face of the box before laying the ball into Jim McInally's path and the midfielder crashed the ball into the top righthand corner past a helpless Snelders. Despite being on top for most of the first half, we found our lead negated just 23 minutes later. Bett sent over a cross from the right and Jess's looping header bounced on the top of the bar before falling to Willem Van Der Ark who forced the ball over the line. But for Snelders we would certainly have regained the lead four minutes from the interval. Dave Bowman spooned a cross to the far post where Duncan Ferguson headed the ball across the face of the goal where John O'Neil met it and a certain goal was only averted by a quite remarkable reaction save by Snelders who tipped the ball over the bar.

Play wasn't quite so open in the second half and gradually Aberdeen came more into evidence after we had dominated the first hour. In 68 minutes Alan Main had to act sharply to turn a shot from Van Der Ark round his near post. But that was nothing to the swiftness which Snelders had to demonstrate just eight minutes later. The Dons defence cleared a corner, but the ball fell to Jim Mclnally who thumped a thunderous first time volley which Snelders somehow managed to turn round the post. Little wonder Aberdeen manager Alex Smith decribed it as one of the best saves he has ever seen. As we entered the final ten minutes, a share of the points became increasingly likely, but then a terrible mix-up between Freddy Van Der Hoorn and goalkeeper Alan Main cost us both points. The Dutch defender under pressure from Booth tried to usher the ball back to Alan Main, but the ball ran loose and Hans Gillhaus gratefully stroked the ball into an empty net. So Aberdeen grabbed two points to keep the pressure on Rangers at the top, but this setback made our task of keeping ahead of Celtic that much more difficult.