Aberdeen 1
Dundee Utd 0
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Not surprisingly manager Jim McLean rang the changes after the 4-0 Cup drubbing by Aberdeen the previous Saturday. Out went Dave Bowman, Paddy Connolly, Billy McKinlay, Mixu Paatelainen whilst Freddy Van Der Hoorn was injured. In came Hamish French, Ray McKinnon, John O'Neil, Allan Preston and Brian Welsh and the youngsters helped us restore some pride, and were unlucky not to take a point from Pittodrie. The first half was a fairly quiet affair with the exception of a last minute intervention by Irvine to stop Hamish French scoring in the eighth minute and a Bett shot which drifted past after Gillhaus had sent him clear in the inside-right channel.

The early second half action centred around Snelders goal with John O'Neil seeing his powerful shot blocked. Almost immediately Jim McInally was on the end of a good move but the sting was taken out of his twenty yarder when it struck a defender. It was 53 minutes before Aberdeen got a shot on target. Gillhaus sent over a cross and from it Nicholas sent in a studied header which Alan Main brilliantly saved. A minute later Raymond McKinnon had to hobble off with a wound which required seven stitches. We clearly won the corner count, by 7-3 and it was from one of these Snelders let a John O'Neil corner slip through his hands, but fortunately for the Dutchman the ball went out for a corner on the far side. Twice within as many minutes Irvine went close with headers, but there was no escape for us in the 81st minute. Bett's cross took a deflection and landed perfectly for Brian Grant to head high into the top right hand corner to give Aberdeen both points, just as it looked as though our efforts had earned us a fighting draw.