Poor Utd Tangerines are left red faced by yet another Dumbarton defeat

PLAYERRATINGS

ST MIRREN away, Livingston away, Falkirk away, Morton home, Queen of the South home and now Dumbarton away.

The list of embarrassing Dundee United defeats this season just keeps on growing.

And while the 6-1 drubbing at Falkirk in early January remains a stand out in the humiliation stakes, Saturday’s 3-2 reversal at the Sons is surely up there as a strong second.

Up against a part-time outfit whose recent record of four defeats on the bounce suggested they’d run out of steam after a hectic schedule, yet again Csaba Laszlo’s team imploded in quite spectacular fashion.

Three times they surrendered the lead to make it a third defeat in four visits to the Sons over the last two seasons in the Championship.

If the two 1-0 defeats there last term were painful, by its very nature this one was beyond belief. Even in a campaign where disappointment has been followed by disappointment, just how United managed to throw away the points in this one was unfathomable.

Having started horribly and surrendered the lead to a scrambled Calum Gallagher effort in the 11th minute, by half-time they were at least applying something approaching sustained pressure to the home goal.

While what they were producing was hardly vintage stuff, you at least got the feeling that if the equaliser came early another important win in the chase for a play-off place would be secured.

When it came via Anthony Ralston’s determined header six minutes into the second period, the expectation had to be it was simply a matter of time before United eased ahead of a side they’d beaten reasonably comfortably just four days earlier at Tannadice.

Not this season and not this United team. Within 10 minutes the poorly marked Craig Barr had headed his team back ahead.

And despite Scott McDonald levelling for a second time and with 20 minutes left in which to finally secure victory, within minutes Barr was allowed to rise unhindered again to secure the lead for a third time.

This time Dumbarton were able to hold — not hang — on. Although the Tangerines huffed and puffed in the final minutes, the Sons saw out time. For that there is only one word — unacceptable.

Make no mistake, like every other team, Dundee United have no divine right to expect only good times.

One of the attractions of this game is even the mightiest can fall on hard times, just as the seemingly most insignificant can hit the heights.

That said, given where their team’s been in recent times, Arabs have a right to expect better than has been served up during a miserable run since the turn of the year. Because what they’re getting is not good enough.

That’s not accusing players of not trying. It is saying they have to realise when they pull on a United jersey, there’s a standard expected of them and, right now, they’re not close to it.

And let’s be clear about how dire the current situation is. With five games to go, this team are involved in a struggle to make the play-offs.

On this form whether or not they make them is irrelevant. For unless something drastic changes they’ve absolutely no chance of promotion.