THE MIRACLE

30 years ago, on a night etched into Scottish football folklore, Dundee United defied all the odds to triumph in the Nou Camp

SATURDAY marks the 30th anniversary of Dundee United’s famous UEFA Cup quarter-final triumph over footballing aristocrats Barcelona. Not all epic stories come with a happy ending. After beating Barca home and away, Jim McLean’s corner-shop team ended a draining 70-game season with defeat to Gothenburg in the final and lost the Scottish Cup showpiece to St Mirren. Recalling an iconic triumph over the Catalan giants, however, chief football writer STEPHEN McGOWAN speaks to goalscorer Iain Ferguson, midfielder Jim McInally and former Tannadice director Justine Mitchell, daughter of the late owner Eddie Thompson.

JUSTINE MITCHELL: Dad was managing director of Watson and Phillip and one of their companies, VG, became the first shirt sponsor of United when dad did some commercial work for the club. We beat Lens then Universitatea Craiova and when we drew Barcelona, there was no way I was missing it

IAIN FERGUSON: We won the first leg when Kevin Gallacher scored in 108 seconds. I remember being interviewed for a TV programme when the interviewer was telling me it was a goal he used to practise in training. I must have been off sick when that happened. Listen, it went into the top corner, that was the main thing.

MITCHELL: Was that Kevin Gallacher goal meant? Who knows? But we came away from that game totally exhilarated and amazed — and full of delight we had just beaten Barcelona at home. We hoped we could cling on in Barcelona, but did we think we would? Probably not.

JIM McINALLY: We played Forfar at home in the Scottish Cup — the game before the Nou Camp — and only equalised in the 94th minute to get a replay.

FERGUSON: Forfar had a decent team at the time. Stewart Kennedy was in goals, they had Iain McPhee — they were an experienced side. They came to Tannadice and this sports-science guy was brought in to relax us the Monday before the game. We had the choice to continue with him or not. I just went to do my warm-up because I didn’t buy into that stuff.

McINALLY: United were quite advanced with sports science in that era and it was revolutionary to have a psychologist in.

FERGUSON: We were 2-1 down and got an injury-time penalty. I didn’t miss many penalties, thankfully — I only missed two in my whole career. But we scraped a draw, got back in the dressing room and Wee Jim took one look at the sports scientist and shouted: ‘You, out!’

McINALLY: My abiding memory is wee Jim chasing the psychologist out the door and telling him not to come back.

FERGUSON: We still fancied our chances in Barcelona. That team picked itself, it was more or less the same every week. I scored 28 goals in 51 games for United that season and I always knew I’d get a chance.

MITCHELL: I was on the charter flight with the team which flew out with my friend Pamela, dad and my brother Stephen (current United chairman). There weren’t many supporters travelling and I was supposed to be on study leave in my final year at school. I was a bit in awe of the players. McINALLY: We went to Spain on the Monday. We always went early to prepare and we had a look round the stadium and spotted the club chapel. Wee Jim would always joke with the catholics and protestants in the squad and, perfectly serious, he told us: ‘I want the catholic boys to go to that chapel tonight...’ FERGUSON: We trained the night before, saw the size of the stadium and walking on to the pitch was like walking into the Colosseum. But that was why I wanted to play football. If you couldn’t enjoy playing there, what was the point? McINALLY: What I always remember was a big interest in the game because Terry Venables (manager), Gary Lineker and Mark Hughes were at Barca and English clubs were out of Europe at the time post-Heysel. All our games were live on TV and that was unusual at the time.

MITCHELL: We went to the Nou Camp for the stadium tour. I’m only 5ft 2in and one of the trophies was as big as me. That brought home how amazing it was to be playing Barcelona. The sheer size of the club and stadium.

McINALLY: We got there and we knew there wouldn’t be a huge crowd because it was a foregone conclusion they would turn us over. They were absolutely soaking the pitch and Paul Sturrock and others were looking, thinking: ‘Brilliant.’ A wet slick pitch was perfect for us — we had good counter-attacking players.

FERGUSON: I never once took to a pitch feeling intimidated by a Spanish, Italian or French player. We always felt we were not only as good, but better, than them. It was the way Scots played football when I was growing up. Call it gallus or confident. Playing football, we felt we were as good as anybody.

McINALLY: Wee Jim was meticulous in what he wanted us to do. It was a case of taking it a half at a time. Trying to get to half-time — and then we lost a goal right on half-time. Caldere scored.

MITCHELL: They made it 1-1 on aggregate just before half-time and you thought: ‘Please, no.’

FERGUSON: To be fair to Wee Jim, he didn’t go crackers at half-time. We were 1-0 down to a deflected goal and he kept stressing: ‘You only need to score one goal.’ If we scored, we had a real chance.

McINALLY: After 15 or 20 minutes of the second half, we felt the natives turning. Mark Hughes was having a shocker and they really didn’t like him. They turned on him.

FERGUSON: We were always a threat at set-pieces. We got a freekick five minutes from the end and Big John Clark rattled a header in off the underside of the bar for 1-1.

McINALLY: The goal went in and wee Jim jumped up and smashed his head on the dugout — he burst it open. They couldn’t stem the blood.

MITCHELL: We were just going mental. Jumping around going crazy — and we had plenty of space to celebrate. It was a surreal experience because there were so few of us there.

FERGUSON: They didn’t know what to do, Gary Lineker was talking to them trying to settle them down.

McINALLY: Before the second goal, Wee Jim was going absolutely mental in the dugout. We could hear him screaming: ‘Keep it, keep it’.

We were terrified to give the ball away. I remember getting it in a wide area and a couple of Barca players coming to me. But I took a step in and slipped the ball between them to Paul Sturrock who crossed for Fergie to score. It wasn’t good play on my part — I was just terrified to give it away.

FERGUSON: I got my goal in the 89th minute. That was it. We had beaten Barcelona home and away.

MITCHELL: It was crazy. We went insane. Screaming. The Barcelona supporters had white hankies out and stuff.

McINALLY: There was a nice touch after the game. Barcelona players weren’t interested in a Dundee United shirt, but we were all looking for theirs. And Terry Venables — who was facing calls for his head — came in the dressing room with a set of shirts for us all. I thought: ‘Good on you, what a gesture’.

FERGUSON: We went back to the hotel, had a meal and a few supporters were milling about. But there were no massive celebrations. The usual suspects like myself, Ian Redford, Davie Bowman and John Clark might have had a sneaky beer. MITCHELL: BBC Reporting

Scotland were on the plane back and they caught me when I should have been on study leave.

I got back to school and the deputy headmistress tore a strip off me for missing school. I couldn’t