Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Utdbattle
Tangerines rack up eight straight wins as they go 13 points clear at the top
T H E nu mbers ma ke ple a s a nt r e a d i n g for Dundee United right now as a hard-fought victory at Arbroath made it eightstraight league wins.
The Tangerines are on their best run of form since 1996-97 and it’s the first time they’ve won that many league matches in a row for 36 years.
This incredible sequence has seen their lead at the top of the second tier extend to a massive 13 points after Inverness fell to defeat at Partick Thistle.
The beauty of this run, however, is not that United are battering teams left, right and centre but that they are showing all different kinds of performances.
At the moment they don’t need to play scintillating football to still pick up three points and that’s the measure of l eague winners.
Away to Dick Campbell’s Arbroath side is as tough an away trip as United will face all season, even if it felt like a home match with more than 3,000 Arabs packed i nto the away end at Gayfield.
They saw their side get off to the perfect start but it was by no means plain sailing after that on the North Sea coast.
The first effort on target brought the first and only goal.
There was an element of luck about it but United and, i n particular Sam Stanton, won’t care.
Six minutes into the contest, Nicky Clark swung a free-kick into the area.
The home side scrambled the ball clear but it fell to Stanton who saw his effort from the edge of the area clip defender Colin Hamilton’s head before finding the corner.
The Tangerines were off and running once more but the
Lichties played their way into the contest as the half wore on and will feel they should have levelled.
Arbroath’s Dundonian talisman Bobby Linn continues to prove a serious threat in the Championship down the left and he tested Benjamin Siegrist’s reactions as the wind played havoc for the goalie.
The big Swiss stood firm for the first free-kick, tipping it over, but next he could only push Linn’s 30-yard swerving effort back into traffic. It fell for Hamilton only for the left-back to completely miss his kick.
The home side continued to press and threaten throughout but the Tangerines should have had the points wrapped up early in the second half.
Clark was played through on goal only for goalie Derek Gaston to bring him down in the area.
Those two faced off from 12 yards but it was Gaston who won by beating out the spot-kick.
It didn’t prove costly, however, as United’s miserly defence kept yet another clean sheet.
That’s 10 this season and this one earned their eighth-straight win.
Those numbers show how dominant United are this season – the one that really matters, though, is the 13-point lead at the top that sees them almost untouchable in the race for promotion.