Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
A classic final so painful for
AS MOTHERWELL try to block Celtic’s bid for a double treble in tomorrow’s Scottish Cup Final, most football fans would be delighted if the tie is a repeat of the Steelmen’s last success in the competition.
All, probably, except Dundee United fans.
For although ’Well’s 1991 success came in a final that is often labelled the best-ever, the fact it was the Tangerines sixth in a losing run at Hampden spread over 17 painful years made it a day to forget for Arabs.
Having fallen at the final hurdle in 1974, ’81, ’85, ‘87 and ’88, the United support that headed for Hampden that day should possibly have feared the worst.
The fact, however, four of those five defeats had been to the Old Firm and were not entirely unexpected, meant they made the journey believing this was going to be their year.
On paper there was good reason for that optimism. Motherwell were a decent side but with stars like Maurice Malpas, Dave Bowman, Jim McInally, Miodrag Krivokapic and the precocious young talent of Duncan Ferguson and Ray McKinnon in their ranks, United were clear favourites.
And although a header from former Tannadice favourite Iain Ferguson had Motherwell up at half-time, once Bowman fired an equaliser 10 minutes into the second half, things seemed to be back on track.
That goal, though, sparked this game into life and, just three minutes later, the late Phil O’Donnell had restored the opposition lead.
And when Ian Angus got their third with 25 minutes left, another final failure looked sealed.
United had other ideas and, as the avalanche of goals continued, almost straight away John O’Neil pulled one back with a fine header.
After that the Motherwell goal was bombarded with attack after attack but, with keeper Ally Maxwell performing heroics, despite picking up a serious abdominal injury in an accidental collision with John Clark, it looked like the equaliser wasn’t going to come.
Until, that was, in one desperate last attempt to save the final, deep in injury time goalie Alan Main launched a massive kick down the park and Darren Jackson got their before Maxwell to knock the ball into the net.