Could these terrible Tangerines be the lowest of the low?
ROCK bottom on Hogmanay 2015, having won just once in the league since August, Dundee United were delighted to kiss goodbye to the club’s
annus horribilis.
For the relegation- haunted Tannadice team, however, 2016, if anything, promises to be even worse.
With each successive defeat, crisis-hit United have become further detached at the bottom of the Premiership and are looking increasingly doomed to life in the second tier next season.
Dundee’s 2-1 derby win at Dens Park on Saturday, allied to a home draw f or Kilmarnock against Hearts, left Mixu Paatelainen’s strugglers a massive 11 points behind the 11th-placed Rugby Park side.
Publicly, Paatelainen and his players remain defiant that the gap can be bridged and that a play-off place — at least — can be secured.
But a look at the history books, and a glance at the current league table, suggests otherwise. Frankly, on this form, United are on course to go down with the lowest ever points tally since the SPL was formed in 1998.
They have secured a meagre 10 from their opening 21 l eague matches. It is a start even poorer than the side which currently holds the unwanted title of the worst SPL team of all time — the Livingston line-up of 2005-06.
The West Lothian club, who amassed j ust 18 points that relegation season, collected 12 from their opening 21 matches; two more than United have at present.
Livi’s predecessors as the ‘worstever team’ were St Johnstone’s 2001-02 vintage. They went down with just 21 points, and had 13 points from 21 games.
Officially, Gretna hold the record for the lowest points total when they went down with just 13 as they headed straight into the financial abyss in 2007-08. But they had in fact won 23 points, of which 10 were deducted for Brooks Mileson’s shambolic outfit going into administration.
Worryingly for United, should they fail to win their next league match, they will be even worse off than little Gretna were at the same stage. The Raydale Park club had won 13 points from 22 games.
The problem for United is their next Premiership game is against none other than champions Celtic, a week on Friday at Tannadice.
It is sure to be a heated fixture, due to ongoing acrimony from United supporters at the 2015 transfers of Gary Mackay-Steven, Stuart Armstrong and Nadir Cifti to Parkhead; moves that preceded United’s eye-popping decline.
Tannadice fans also recently booed young defender John Souttar over persistent links with a move to Celtic. The 19-year-old has now entered the last six months of his contract, with no offer of a fresh deal from his current club.
Against that backdrop, veteran United midfielder John Rankin hopes the supporters get behind their struggling team for Celtic’s visit as they hope to boost flickering hopes of survival.
‘We need to start winning games,’ said Rankin. ‘First and foremost, we need to start winning at Tannadice with our crowd behind us.
‘If we can do that, then we can give ourselves a chance. We know it’s Celtic at home but the older ones have to take responsibility here and get the younger ones back up for it. It’s not any easier than it was before the derby. But we are not feeling sorry for ourselves. We must roll our sleeves up and get going again.’
But United are a brittle bunch. On Saturday at Dens Park, Paatelainen’s side took the lead, as they have done in five of their last seven matches. The crucial statistic from those five matches, however, is that they have failed to convert going ahead into any victories, earning just one point in a 2-2 draw at Inverness.
That is down to defending which Paatelainen (right) has described as ‘a joke’, while labelling his team ‘soft’ and ‘sloppy’.
The Finn’s attempt to strengthen by adding the experienced goalkeeper Eiji Kawashima backfired when the Japan international was at fault for Dundee’s equaliser by Kane Hemmings on Saturday. All in, there seems precious little about this Dundee United side to suggest Paatelainen can manufacture the kind of great escape c onj ured up by similarly-struggling Ross County last season.
They also face a real banana skin of a Scottish Cup tie this weekend when they travel to f ace Airdrieonians. The e x peri e nced Rankin knows a team boosted by the recent appointment of new head coach Eddie Wolecki Black will be hoping to heap fresh misery upon their Tayside visitors. Conversely, though, he feels a cup win could breathe fresh life into their struggling league form.
‘We’ve got a difficult cup tie away to Airdrie coming up,’ nodded Rankin. ‘It’s going to be hard.
‘Airdrie will be right up for it. They will be looking to take our scalp, so we will go there with a bit of pride and passion and try to get ourselves in the next round of the cup. Then we can get back to league form.
‘Yes, the heads are down but there’s no point dwelling on it. And, you never know, a wee break from the league might actually give us a boost.
‘I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing.
‘It’s a different focus for sure, and a chance to get ourselves into the fifth round of the Scottish Cup.
‘For a week, there’s maybe a wee bit less pressure but there’s always pressure at a club like ours.
‘The pressure this time is to progress in the Cup, so we need to dust ourselves down and go to Airdrie and go at it again.’