Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Terrors must of last year’s
Look at Dundee United right now and you can’t help but get a sense of deja vu or, put even more bluntly, a feeling that here we go again.
A year ago, as 2016 became 2017, the Tangerines’ season effectively unravelled.
The l ast game of the old year produced a second shock defeat of the campaign at part-timers Dumbarton that saw Ray McKinnon’s team lose top spot in the Championship to Hibs after just one week up there.
If that was a blow, things went from bad to worse in the opening weeks of the new year as damaging results saw them drop well off the pace in the race to grab the automatic promotion place.
Twelve months on, United were not top as they ended 2017 with a painful loss at leaders St Mirren, but had they won that one would have been.
And Saturday’s humiliating demolition at the hands of Falkirk sees them lagging six points behind the Buddies.
If that same kind of January slump as a year ago continues at Dunfermline this weekend, once again hopes of automatic promotion could be fatally damaged.
It makes Saturday coming, and the weeks that follow, a crucial period for Csaba Laszlo’s team.
What’s even more worrying than that feeling of history repeating itself is the fragility that’s been apparent in those defeats in Paisley and Falkirk.
Right now, United appear to be a team that can be unstoppable — but only so long as things are going their way. When they get on top of the opposition they’re capable of steamrollering over any side and winning games by a handsome margin.
Should, however, something go wrong, it seems there is no way back for them.
Against St Mirren for the entire first half and the opening minutes of the second, while never quite at their best, they were comfortably the better side.
The game was no classic but United held a clear edge and the worst they seemed to be on course to get was a goalless draw.
Then came the loss of a bad goal as Lewis Morgan was allowed too much room from which to net with a trademark strike from just outside the area.
From the moment his shot hit the back of the net, it was a case of game over.