ZWICK IS BROUGHT IN FROM THE COLD
United keeper hails his best win
NO one is quite sure of the exact point this season when football on both sides of the border stepped through the looking glass. The English Premier League is now Leicester City’s to throw away. If Aberdeen end their Premiership campaign as they started it, they are highly likely to be crowned Scottish champions. What was once considered the stuff of fantasy may be coming to a winner’s podium near us all very soon.
Even in seasons when the respective league races in Scotland and England have been about as riveting as solitary confinement, the capacity of cup competitions to surprise and enthral us has never been diminished.
In that respect, given how unpredictable the top flights have been this season, wouldn’t it be entirely fitting if the side that takes custody of the Scottish Cup come May is the very one that’s been close to a laughing stock at times?
With an hour gone of their game in Dingwall on Saturday, Dundee United were a goal down, a player down and — to a man — privately bemoaning the fact that a fairly wretched campaign was being summed up in the one remaining tournament that can yet offer them glory.
What then transpired was nothing short of staggering.
Rather than curse their misfortune after Mark Durnan was ordered off for taking out Brian Graham with a last-man challenge — which then saw the County man subsequently put his side back in front from the penalty spot — United opted to make the game their personal property.
Henri Anier, who had already claimed his first goal in a year to negate Liam Boyce’s first- half opener, bulleted a half- volley beyond County keeper Gary Woods to restore parity for the second time in the game.
If it then seemed logical for the Premiership’ s long-standing bottom side to batten down the hatches and manfully hold out for a replay, Mixu Paatelainen’s players were having none of it.
With 60 seconds left on the clock, a heroic surge by substitute Chris Erskine dragged United into the final third of the park. Billy Mckay then redirected Blair Spittal’s cross beyond Woods for what would be the last meaningful act in a breathless second half.
You couldn’t blame Paatelainen’s players for celebrating as if they’d won the old trophy itself a few moments later.
In an otherwise dreadful season, relief and fresh hope made for a potent mix.
If the most unlikely of comebacks was the main narrative of the day, there were no shortage of sweet sub-plots.
Anier’s redemption in front of goal may have been the main cause of celebration for the raucous visiting support, but the tale a man at the other end of the field had to tell was equally as engrossing.
Luis Zwick has been so far out of the picture to date under Paatelainen that you feared a search party might be required to locate the back-up keeper when Eiji Kawashima was ruled out with a thigh injury last Friday.
Not only was he found in good time but, in repeatedly repelling County throughout a difficult first half, he came to embody the character that’s been evident around United for a few weeks now.
‘I’m absolutely buzzing,’ said the young German. ‘They got the penalty but we managed to turn the game. It’s unbelievable in my first game for a couple of months. It couldn’t have gone better.
‘I didn’t think that was it (when Durnan was sent off) but I knew it would be even harder. We showed a great attitude and were fighting for each other. I think we deserved to win.
‘My career is not that long but that’s the best victory I can remember.
‘I can’t explain why we are bottom of the league when we can play like that.’
That’s not really such a hard one to fathom. It was the f ar too numerous sub-standard displays in the first half of the campaign that have done the damage. What’s happened of late has been the equivalent of baling out the water from the stricken vessel.
Still, with 10 league games still to come and a Scottish Cup semi-final against either Hibernian or Inverness Caley Thistle on the horizon, a high standard has now been set.
Avoid the drop and win the Scottish Cup? Strangers things are happening before our eyes this season.
‘For some weeks now we have been playing really well, but now we are starting to get the results as well,’ added 21-year-old Zwick.
‘If we keep playing like this I think we will stay up and we will have a good chance in the Cup as well.
‘Like everyone else who’s in the semi-final, we want to win the Cup.
‘I think the Cup run can help the league form because it will help our confidence. It’s a big thing.
‘It’s the best game possible to get the confidence back. It could be a big turning point for us. The last game was a defeat to Aberdeen but winning the two previous games with Ross County and Hearts helped us.
‘For now we have to concentrate on the league. We’ve got a big game next Friday (away to Motherwell). The Cup semi and a final are only two games, so they are not a problem.
‘If we can now beat Motherwell, we’re back in the race.’
As endearing a story as Zwick’s was at the weekend, it would be a major surprise if Kawashima isn’t back in position once fully fit.
Paatelainen, who is the Ladbrokes Premiership Manager of the Month for February, will be pleased he now has options for a troublesome position.
Frankly, Zwick looked ill-prepared to make the step up to the professional game upon joining United from an amateur team in Berlin last summer, but perhaps the period on the sidelines — as well as working with his fellow Tannadice keepers Kawashima and Michal Szromnik — has been a good thing in the long run.
The moment he deftly tipped Michael Gardyne’s fizzing volley over the bar with the game pegged at two apiece might yet prove to be a season- defining moment in the club’s season.
‘When he (Paatelainen) dropped me at the beginning, it was hard but I knew that one day there would be another chance,’ added the German.
‘I’ve worked very hard for this chance. For i t to come i n the quarter-final is like a dream.
‘I’ve been on the bench when
Michal played and then when Eiji came in. I knew I had to take the chance when it came along. I had to play well to maybe cause the manager a problem. I think Eiji has been really good as well but we will see.
‘I’m there if he needs me. It’s just important that we stay up and win the Cup.
‘Whoever plays is not the most important thing.
‘ Do I deserve to play i n the semi-final? I don’t know. You would have to ask the manager.
‘I helped win the quarter-final but we will see.’