By Graeme Dey

A YEAR which began with Dundee United facing a desperate battle to avoid finishing bottom of the SPL has ended with them bagging of 10 points out of a possible 15 and going three straight games without conceding a goal for the first time in 18 months.

And while there remains room for improvement in United’s attacking play, at least the defensive foundations, required to ensure the progress made in recent weeks under Ian McCall continues in 2004, appear to be in place.

The Tangerines wound up the old year with a hard-earned 2-0 Rugby Park victory over Kilmarnock, fashioned largely from resolute defending which restricted the home side to very few clear-cut chances.

And on the one occasion Killie looked like finding the net, when a Steve Fulton free-kick looped off the head of David McCracken, the in-form Paul Gallacher played his part, producing a fantastic stop when he clawed the ball to safety.

“I can’t remember the last time we had three successive clean sheets, to be honest,” reflected recalled full-back Jim Paterson.

“But we are starting to gel.

“You could see that in the second-half when we withstood the pressure Kilmarnock applied.

“We now have the personnel to change our system and go from a back three to a back four as we did today.

“The gaffer has brought in Alan Archibald and Chris Innes and they’ve both been doing really well, Mark Wilson has been brilliant and so has David McCracken.

“Things are coming together for us defensively.

“But that’s not only down to the back four or five because Paul Gallacher’s been in great form and we have guys in the middle of the park who work their socks off.

“Everyone knows their jobs now and we are defending as well as I’ve seen Dundee United defend in my time at the club.

“We don’t look like folding, whereas in the past we caused our own problems by giving away stupid goals.”

Paterson reckoned there was a degree of justice about his regaining his starting berth and being on the winning side at Rugby Park.

“I broke my leg the second time here in a challenge with Ally Mitchell and I reckon the place owes me one,” he said.

“I’ve had a stop-start season really between injuries and the flu.

“But I got a half the other night and the gaffer decided to start with me at left-back today.

“Hopefully I can now stay in the team.”

United were set on course for a victory which moved them to within a couple of points of fifth position by Billy Dodds’ fourth goal in as many games.

A deflected 20th-minute Barry Robson free-kick found Dodds lurking unmarked at the back post and the veteran hitman applied a typically ruthless finish to leave Killie labouring.

The Ayrshire outfit claimed loudly for a penalty when a Colin Nish header struck McCracken’s hand, but referee Kevin Toner rightly turned a deaf ear.

And United could easily have been two up at the break but for Robson spurning a similar chance to the one Dodds stuck away.

The second period saw Kilmarnock press hard for an equaliser but they lacked the quality or guile to force a breakthrough, and with nine minutes left the issue was settled when Stevie Fulton brought down substitute Jason Scotland and Jim McIntyre coolly chipped home the resulting penalty via the underside of the crossbar.

Killie boss Jim Jefferies had a good old mump about that award and the merits of the result.

“Dundee United defended well and took their chances, but 2-0 flattered them—we certainly didn’t deserve to lose because we were by far the better team in the second-half,” he groaned.

“Everyone in the ground saw Stevie got the ball but I asked the referee what he saw (for the penalty) and he said Fulton came through the man.

“I asked him if that was the case then why wasn’t he booked or sent off ?

“I couldn’t understand the answer because he said he didn’t think it was a genuine goalscoring opportunity.”

Fact is, though, it WAS a penalty—for while Fulton got the ball first, his trailing leg caught Scotland, who still looked like reaching it ahead of keeper Francois Dubourdeau.

The only mistake Toner made was in not producing at very least a yellow card.

McCall was delighted with his team’s efforts.

“We felt we owed a performance today after the Partick game and we got one,” he said.

“I was really pleased because we showed two sides to us.

“In the first-half we passed the ball as well as I’ve seen us.

“In the second-half we showed grit, real strength, when for 25 minutes Kilmarnock threw everything at us.

“It’s great to get a win here because if I had to choose managers as mentors it would be Jim Jefferies and Billy Brown.”

Next month’s Tennent’s Scottish Cup tie between Dundee United and Dunfermline will go-ahead at East End Park despite the fact playing on an artificial surface is contrary to the published rules of the competition!

Rule 36 states, “A match may not be played on any surface other than on natural grass without the prior written agreement of both participating clubs.”

United—one of a number of SPL sides who have criticised the Pars artificial surface—sought clarification of whether this meant the tie would be switched to a neutral venue.

However, they were advised that four months ago the SFA Board agreed to set that rule aside for this season and fall into line with the SPL sanctioned experiment being undertaken by Dunfermline and the Tangerines have accepted they’ll be heading for Fife on January 10.