A fairytale club with a bit of magic
It might be an age thing. For those of us with bladders even more dodgy than our knees, there’s always been something magical about Dundee United, regardless if you’re from anywhere near Tayside.
Us old folks who were kicking around in the eighties couldn’t help but be drawn to the exploits of Jim McLean’s Corner Shop crew.
Even in the Glasgow schools, kids with the Old Firm rivalry running through their veins would often be kicking a ball around in playgrounds pretending to be the men in Tangerine or their chums in red from up the A90.
Success is sexy I suppose.
But United were an easy attraction. They had a kit that made them stand out and they had players like Paul Sturrock – a tartan Johan Cruyff.
United also had class acts like David Narey, Maurice Malpas and Paul Hegarty, a flying machine in
Kevin Gallagher and a goalkeeper in Billy Thompson who played in tights and could bend like a circus acrobat.
When they went on their European adventures, they dragged the entire country along with them.
Maybe it’s memories of those days and this constant craving for nostalgia that made the other night so special.
Look, we know United – or any other Scottish team for that matter
– are unlikely to be beating Barcelona over two legs any time soon.
Rangers reaching the Europa League Final last year defied logic.
But there’s more chance of us in the 40 plus brigade squeezing into the old eighties fitba shorts these days than a team side outside the Glasgow pair going that deep into continental competition.
We have to look for small mercies where we find them and Thursday night was a proper blessing. It was old school.
Tannadice might
look a bit dated but it’s a smashing place for football. And it rocked the other night. AZ Alkmaar might not be one of Europe’s real heavy hitters but they are a more than decent side from Holland.
That’s plenty. It was a stunning result and they deserved to savour it. Even if United get scudded out in the next leg, it will be better to have loved and lost, and all that.
But let’s hope that is not the case and Jack Ross and his men can finish the job. It would be good for the Scottish game and great for Dundee United.
They’ve been through enough in recent years.
Rangers fans might have lost any eighties affection for the Tangerines after the clubs fell out back in the wild days of a decade ago. But in terms of the greater good, it’s about time Scottish sides made some kind of impact on the continent.
It’s a big ask for
United this time but for them it’s a step in the right direction.
We need as many strong clubs as we can get and we need arguably the sixth biggest in the nation to get its act together.
Thankfully that seems to be the case.
They’ve got a proper manager in Ross and while the wage bill is still a tad on the high side, owner Mark Ogren doesn’t seem fussed.
We might not have Weegie kids pretending to be Tangerines in the playgrounds but they’ll have Dundee kids doing it again, which hasn’t always been the case in recent years.
Tannadice rocked and it was an old school blessing