The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Murdoch returns to lead United through
Captain off his sick bed to steer youthful holders into last eight
After losing almost a stone due to a sickness bug last week, Stewart Murdoch regained his appetite for the game by captaining a youthful Dundee United side to victory in the Irn-bru Cup against Northern Irish side Linfield on Saturday.
The 27-year-old had to miss the Championship win at Dunfermline last week due to the debilitating illness that left him completely drained.
The former Ross County player had recovered at the start of last week and set about trying to regain the weight he lost with a “see-food” diet – all food he saw, he ate.
And it worked a treat with the revitalised Murdoch leading the team of kids through to the quarter-finals of the Challenge Cup with sub Logan Chalmers the last-gasp hero, scoring the only goal deep into stoppage time.
Murdoch said: “I’ve had a terrible illness but by Friday, I had managed to get my weight back up by about three kilos.
“I’ve just been eating as much as possible, loads of carbohydrates and pretty much everything I could get my hands on.
“I had to do that all week. I’ve been eating five meals a day because I’d lost about a stone in weight.
“My physique is important to me so that I’m strong.
“I’m good enough on the ball but one of my big things is to win headers and tackles. So my weight needs to be back up and I’m feeling good now.
“I don’t know how the illness came about. But I could hardly get out my bed the Friday before last, apart from to be sick.
“There was a bug going around. I was about three to four days with hardly eating anything. I completely emptied my body on the Thursday night.
“Physically, I just couldn’t get anything in me. Nothing would stay down.
“It was just one of these things – a bad illness.
“I had to make myself unavailable for the Dunfermline game the week before, but fortunately the boys managed to get a great result.
“It’s one of those things that when you’re in the stand you’re wanting the boys to do well.”
Linfield had a great chance in the 19th minute when Kirk Millar swung an inviting cross in from the right with Andrew Waterworth heading over when he should have at least hit the target.
The same player then sent a shot into the United side-netting before Aaron Burns had an attempt deflected just wide of Deniz Mehmet’s post.
The keeper had to look lively once more in the 34th minute when he dived low to keep out a fizzing 18-yard effort from Robert Garrett.
Mckinnon made a change in the 66th minute, bringing Chalmers on for Joe Piggott.
United had another let-off in the 70th minute when Linfield’s Andrew Mitchell swung a deep cross in from the right with Burns failing to convert at the back post.
The home side then put together a superb sweeping move which ended with Graham Taylor having a clear sight of goal 12 yards out. His low shot beat Linfield keeper Gareth Deane but cannoned back off the post.
However, the Tangerines were determined to retain their hold on the Challenge Cup and in the fourth minute of added-on time, Taylor hit a fierce cross from the right which Deane did well to parry but only to Chalmers who made no mistake volleying the ball into the back of the net from 12 yards to take his side through to the quarter-finals.
Murdoch admitted he was not surprised that Chalmers had taken his chance with aplomb.
He added: “It’s good to get a result with such a changed team.
“It had a 0-0 feel about it towards the end and that includes the fans so we were expecting it to go for another 30 minutes. We were thrilled when Logan stuck it away.
“I’ve seen him do that a lot. When I was coming back from injury last season, I played a lot of games for the development squad to get my fitness back up and Logan was obviously playing.
“He’s a big talent with real composure. When the chance fell to him, he is just the right kind of guy take advantage of it. I would have probably blazed it over the bar – but he’s gone and stuck it away brilliantly.”
Twitter: @C_nrobertson