Dundee Utd 2
Celtic 0
League Cup (Quarter Final)

Match Report

Further revenge for our Cup final defeat last May was exacted, as we eliminated Celtic from the Skol Cup, our second victory over the men from Parkhead in eleven days. With Celtic licking their wounds after their crushing defeat by Rangers the previous Saturday, we knew Celtic would be desperate to get back on the rails again and consequently the match was fought out at a quite frantic pace. As the plot unfolded, the pattern of play followed our earlier meeting of the season, with Celtic having plenty of possession, but with us looking the side most likely to score. The game got off to a frantic start with referee Jim Renton lecturing Celtic captain Roy Aitken and manager Billy McNeil, with assistant manager Tommy Craig banished to the stand very shortly afterwards.

The first real chance of the match came in the 12th minute when Raphael Meade's back header fell to Kevin Gallacher whose shot was going narrowly past the far post until Ian Redford stretched out to reach but he couldn't quite guide the ball into the net. Celtic's first major threat was posed by McAvennie, who headed a Miller corner just over. Eight minutes later Raphael Meade saw Andrews palm his shot round the post and with five minutes left before the interval, Jim McInally found Dave Bowman at the far post, but Dave's shot hit the side-netting.

The large crowd had only just settled down for the start of the second half when we took the lead Kevin Gallacher played a long ball towards Ian Redford, who shrugged off the challenge of Chris Morris and carried on to slam the ball past Andrews.

Celtic's response was a Grant 20 yarder and a fine individual run and shot by McAvennie both of which were brilliantly saved by Billy Thomson. For all Celtic's possession all they could otherwise muster was a Tommy Burns shot which hit the side net and a Frank McAvennie shot which squirmed past the post.

With time running out for Celtic, we killed the game stone dead with a second goal. Dave Bowman's throw-in found Hamish French, whose run down the right and cross into the middle was headed out of Andrews reach by Kevin Gallacher who was some 10 yards out.

That was with four minutes remaining and Hamish French had the ball in the net before the end but was ruled off-side, but by that time the tie was well beyond Celtic's reach.