Paddy Connolly Player Profile

Timeline

• Date of Birth

  Paddy was born on this date in Glasgow.

  Thursday, June 25th, 1970

• Signed For Dundee United

  Paddy joined United from Hamilton Thistle and progressed through the youth system. He was part of the national youth side and a regular in the United reserve side from 1986. He made his first team debut in a testimonial match against Highland side Keith in May 1988, and just over a year later he made his competitive debut in the second last league match of the 1988-89 season against Hearts at Tynecastle.

  Monday, June 30th, 1986

• Debut - Hearts 0 - 0 Dundee United

  Who would have believed that it was possible for two sides to produce five consecutive goalless draws. Even a late penalty award for Hearts failed to breach the stalemate of these recent encounters.

  Saturday, May 6th, 1989

• First Goal - Dundee United 2 - 0 Celtic

  Tannadice, which has so often been the graveyard for Celtic's aspirations lived up to its reputation yet again. This latest defeat means Celtic have only won twice on Tayside in their last 17 visits. More importantly from a United standpoint, it closed the gap on Celtic, who are in fourth spot, to a single point and re-awakened our own hopes of a place in Europe again next season.

  Saturday, January 13th, 1990

• 50th Appearance - Celtic 2 - 0 Dundee United

  Parkhead was the scene of our first defeat of the season and there is no doubt that United gave themselves a mountain to climb by losing two goals after only 12 minutes play. Celtic had Andy Payton making his debut and the former Middlesbrough striker almost scored with his first touch after 15 seconds. Not that a goal was long delayed. Newcomer Payton initiated the move with a pass out to Miller and when his cross arrived in the middle Gerry Creaney sent a glancing header well out of Alan Main's reach. Further disaster befell us eight minutes later when Boyd's cross from the left was again met by Gerry Creaney who this time directed a looping header in at the far post.

  Saturday, August 15th, 1992

• 50th League Appearance - Dundee 1 - 3 Dundee United

  After the fighting draw with Celtic, team changes were limited to Brian Welsh and John O'Neil replacing Dave Narey and Michael O'Neill. This meant John Clark continued in his striking role. If the first derby match of the season had been something of a let down, then this second encounter had more than sufficient action and drama to satisfy the most demanding of fans. The catalogue of incident began after only nine minutes when Den Bieman headed a McQuillan cross against the face of the bar. For Gary Bollan this was to be an afternoon of completely contrasting fortunes. First he was booked for "feigning injury" after being body-checked by Jim Duffy. Not too long after that he rose to head in the game's opening goal. Dundee equalised ten minutes before the break when Billy Dodds hooked a Campbell corner over the line. Dundee did threaten twice more before the interval, but the second half saw the game change direction.

  Saturday, November 21st, 1992

• 100th Appearance - Dundee United 3 - 1 Brøndby

  Faced with the prospect of trying to retrieve a two goal deficit, United suffered a blow when Andy McLaren was ruled out because of flu and John Clark was drafted in up front. The experience of Dave Bowman and Dave Narey was a welcome boost to our chances. On the evidence of the opening few minutes, you'd have thought it was the Danes and not United who were two goals in arrears! Alan Main had to pull off a superb save at full stretch to keep out a Kristensen free-kick and Strudel was twice only inches away from getting on the end of two very dangerous crosses. All his with only seven minutes on the clock! Gradually, United fought their way into the game, but a series of corners was as much as we could muster. There were grounds for guarded optimism on the half time whistle as Rieper just managed to cut out a ball intended for John Clark.

  Tuesday, September 28th, 1993

• 100th League Appearance - Dundee United 1 - 3 Kilmarnock

  Killie fighting for their Premier League survival battled tenaciously right from the first whistle to the last and United could have little by way of complaint as to the outcome. Whilst Billy McKinlay did recover from his hamstring injury in time to play, the knock Jim Mclnally took at Ibrox kept him out, whilst Jerren Nixon and Paddy Connolly traded places with Andy McLaren and David Hannah and were in the starting line up.

  Tuesday, April 26th, 1994

• Last Goal - Dundee United 3 - 0 Hamilton

  United's much changed side which saw teenage winger Paul Walker start a first team match for the first time booked a comfortable passage to the quarter finals of the League Challenge Cup.

  Tuesday, September 12th, 1995

• Last Appearance - Dundee United 1 - 2 Airdrie

  The writing was on the wall in the last twenty minutes when the Tangerlnes simply stopped playing after taking the lead and failed to kill off the opposition. Matters were only compounded by yet another serious injury to a striker with Paddy Connolly being led off with what transpired to be a broken collar-bone. From that moment on Airdrie, who had rarely been seen as an attacking force, surged forward. That the game should end in such a fashion was in complete contrast to how the opening seventy minutes had unfolded.

  Saturday, September 23rd, 1995