Not many Dundee United supporters who trudged out of Tannadice on Saturday evening are retaining any belief that their team can still win the Championship title.
The relentless form of runaway leaders St Mirren, combined with some recent shocking performances from the Tangerines, has created an 11-point gap at the top, albeit with United having a game in hand.
The Buddies’ win at East End Park on Friday night, combined with United’s 3-0 defeat to Morton, had obvious significance for the promotion battle.
Courier Sport looks back on five other weekends that have probably left United with just the play-offs to strive for.
August 26, 2017. St Mirren beat United 3-0.
With Hibs promoted the season before and relegated Inverness enduring a cost-cutting summer, with little anticipation they would be strong enough to bounce back as champions, United were rightly confident that they would be able to flex their muscles as the ‘big boys’ of the second tier. Three league wins out of three and some encouraging Betfred Cup results – and the signings of Fraser Fyvie, Scott McDonald and others – did nothing to dampen expectation. Saints putting three past them and out-playing them was like a bucket of ice cold water. Not only did it re-open old wounds (Ray McKinnon was given abuse from one fan who got close to the away dug-out) it also gave Saints belief that they were United’s equal.
September 24, 2017. St Mirren beat Queen of the South 3-1 at home.
It’s not the result itself that was particularly impressive – you would expect Saints to beat Queens on their own pitch. The significance was in the fact that they been thrashed 3-0 at Dunfermline the week before. I covered the Pars game and left East End Park thinking Jack Ross had a distinctly middle-of-the-table team and that their one star man, Lewis Morgan, could be kept quiet by decent full-backs. In short, Dunfermline looked the better bet to give United a run for their money. Ross’s demeanour post-match was impressive and he earned his money in the next few days by restoring confidence in a team which had been over-run.
October 14, 2017. United lose 2-0 at Livingston and St Mirren win 2-0 at Dumbarton.
The Tangerines were feeling good about themselves again by this point. A win at Dunfermline was particularly eye-catching. The LIvi loss unquestionably spooked them, though. There have been worse performances since but at the time it felt like a horrible throwback. Indeed, after a home defeat to Inverness seven days later, McKinnon had been sacked. While United were going down at Livingston, Saints were winning at Dumbarton – which was no given at that stage of the season or any stage, for that matter).
November 25, 2017. United draw at Brechin and St Mirren win in Inverness.
It was top v bottom at Glebe Park and in those circumstances an away draw is not a good result. United totally dominated the first half and should been out of sight but their 1-0 lead didn’t prove to be enough and, not for the first or last time, they weren’t able to deal with a physical battle. The best time to face Inverness had passed and when Saints won that day to regain first place it was Caley Thistle’s first defeat in eight games. This was another momentum-switch weekend.
December 23, 2017. United beat Livingston 3-0 and St Mirren win 3-2 against Queen of the South.
Saints fans will probably look back on this game at Palmerston as THE moment they won the title if they avoid a collapse and finish the job off from here onwards. Queens were in peak form, having thrashed Dunfermline 5-2 the week before. They went two up on Saints early and over-turning that deficit to win was the stuff of potential champions. United were cruising against Livingston and hearing how their rivals had turned things around in such testing circumstances would have stung. Had Saints lost, United would have gone into the top-of-the-table clash between the two teams in Paisley with a one-point lead rather than being two behind.
