The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Handy bit of play by Clark gets United win
Maybe it was an omen. A sleight of hand from a wily striker that was caught on camera but missed by the referee, leading to a controversial goal against Partick Thistle in the Scottish Cup.
If that sounds familiar to Dundee United fans then so it should.
Back on January 9, 2010, the Tangerines had Argentinian frontman Damian Casalinuovo in their ranks as the anti-hero at Firhill.
This time it was Nicky Clark at Tannadice.
Casalinuovo handled the ball into the Jags net 11 years ago, while Clark gave hapless Thistle defender Mouhamed Niang a wee shove into keeper Kieran Wright before tapping the loose ball over the line in stoppage time on Saturday.
Back in the day, United famously went on to lift the Scottish Cup by beating Ross County 3-0 as Hampden was painted in tangerine. Hey, you never know...
They can still go far in this campaign, of course, despite an awful first-half display that had you trawling your memory to find anything worse by Micky Mellon’s men this season. The Peterhead loss in the Betfred Cup group stages in October won that particular vote.
They are also on a run of just one defeat (to champions Rangers) in seven matches so credit to them for that.
Having gotten out of jail with just a 1-0 deficit at the break, United were considerably better after the restart and deserved to level through Lawrence Shankland’s strike on 78 minutes.
The Jags were then stung by Clark’s clincher just as the spectre of extra-time loomed large.
United boss Mellon said: “The important thing is that we got there in the end.
“Obviously, as a coaching staff and me as the manager, we want to see the team playing as well as possible.
“There is a lot of stuff we want to improve on but we showed in little spells what we want to do as a team.
“We lost our way a little in the first half but second half we came out and probably didn’t get the rewards to start with for getting on track again.”
Mellon added: “We never lost our composure, we kept going and battling away because at the end of the day we were expected to go through.
“The pressure could have told on us and teams that don’t show the togetherness might have lost their way but we kept battling.
“It was a good oldfashioned cup-tie played early doors in April which was all very strange.
“But to be in the hat for the next round is the most important thing.
“We want to do the best we can in the cup.
“You could see that today from both sets of players – it was a game that had pretty much everything in it.“That is great credit to all the players.
“You can see the importance of that and we want to achieve that for the fans.
“We are into the next round now and we will see where it takes us.”
As for Clark’s controversial goal, Mellon said: “As soon as I saw it bounce, I thought he (Niang) could be in trouble here.
“I thought there could be a wee opportunity for us and I was glad to see it roll into the net.”
Jags boss Ian McCall – no stranger to a post-match moan – felt it should have been a foul.
He said: “There were tears from the young boy Mouhamed Niang.
“He is very emotional but he’s still learning the game.
“He should have just cleared the ball up the park but he will learn from this experience.
“And I’ve just watched the footage of the winning goal.
“Listen, I wanted to stay in the cup and I wanted to win but I’m pleased it didn’t go to extra-time.
“But you’ll see that Nicky Clark has just pushed our guy.
“It is a stonewall foul. “It’s as clear a foul as you will see. It’s crazy.”
McCall was right – it was a shove – but it was a shame for him and Thistle that the reflections on the game were mostly negative because his players did him proud.
They were better than United in the first half, although the hosts were particularly poor.
Indeed, the Premiership side were lucky not to have been two or three goals down at the break.
They rallied, thanks no doubt to some strong
words from half-time.
In the final quarter, they were playing as they should have been all game.
Surely they know they can’t afford to be as sluggish as they were in the opening 45 if they hope to make the most out of what remains of this unique season.
The dreadful first-half
Mellon at display was encapsulated in the Partick goal, with a Ciaran McKenna long throw-in met with some horrible head tennis before Scott Tiffoney was allowed to nod past goalkeeper Deniz after 25 minutes.
United dominated after the restart and ended up with 12 shots to Thistle’s five.
The ones that counted came from Shankland, as sharp of mind as ever to pounce on Niang’s mistake, while substitute Clark clinched the victory and rescued us all – even McCall – from extra-time.
It may have been controversial and close but it was still deserved.
United march on.