It’s Legends Day at Tannadice on Saturday.
Dundee United greats are set to be lauded for their past achievements on an afternoon Liam Fox will hope inspires his players to victory over St Johnstone.
The Perth side have had plenty of success of their own on United’s home turf down the years, particularly in recent seasons.
Courier picks out five of their players whose starring performances have lived long in the memory of Saints supporters.
1 Ian Rodger
There won’t be many of the 1,500 travelling fans at Tannadice who remember Rodger’s exploits in the 1950s but his goalscoring record at that venue is very impressive.
He scored 116 times in 173 games in his Perth career (a record at the time, only subsequently surpassed by John Brogan).
Two of those came in Saints’ biggest ever win away to United (5-1 in 1955), one in a 2-1 victory in 1953 and another in a 2-1 triumph in 1957.
Liam Craig joins select group to have scored 60 goals for St Johnstone FC:
140: John Brogan
116: Ian Rodger
114: Henry Hall105: Paddy Buckley
85: Andy McCall
82: George O'Boyle79: Roddy Grant
70: Joe Carr, Harry Ferguson, Gordon Whitelaw67: Jimmy Munro
60: Liam Craig pic.twitter.com/yohNTAjps9— St Johnstone 1884 (@stjohnstone1884) March 6, 2021
2 Steve Maskrey
The talismanic forward, one of the few players who was integral to two promotions under Alex Totten and straddled the Muirton and McDiarmid Park eras, scored what turned out to be the winner against United in 1990.
It was the end of October and United still had a 100% home record and recently-promoted Saints had never won a top division fixture there in their history.
Dundee United 1-2 St Johnstone, October 1990. Steve Maskrey and John Inglis with early goals in front of over 11,000 fans. United were top of the league with a 100% home record. https://t.co/hu7FvpIVTC
— St Johnstone 1884 (@stjohnstone1884) May 6, 2020
Maskrey scored plenty of better goals than this one (John Inglis got the other, with Darren Jackson netting a late consolation) but it capped off one of the most golden spells of football the club has ever known.
In a five-game run Aberdeen were beaten 5-0, there were draws with Rangers and Celtic and Hearts were defeated at Tynecastle.
3 Leigh Jenkinson
For quality of goal, the English winger’s volley in 1998 could well be the finest.
Saints were up against 10 men after Erik Pedersen had been sent off but didn’t make the breakthrough until midway through the second half.
It wasn’t quite Callum Hendry against Motherwell but Jenkinson’s first-time left foot striker past Sieb Dijkstra was a beauty.
https://t.co/5Un5FsAayP pic.twitter.com/YEU9qN8JSk
— Blair Kaylor (@BlairKaylor) February 13, 2023
He then had a short run to the Perth fans for an iconic celebration with John O’Neill on his back.
A George O’Boyle tap-in made the final score 2-0.
4 Liam Craig
Now a coach at McDiarmid Park, Craig has scored a couple of times at Tannadice.
The first was a winner in May 2013 in the third last game of the season, helping secure the team he was soon to leave a place in Europe.
And the second was an equaliser when Saints were down to 10 men on day one of the double-winning campaign.
Had he not been sent off that afternoon, Michael O’Halloran (who scored a Tannadice double in 2015) might have made this list!
5 Stevie May
May’s goals against United at McDiarmid probably stick in the memory more than the ones at Tannadice.
But there was a 48th minute to secure a March, 2014 victory – a game best remembered for Tommy Wright and Jackie McNamara both being red carded.
The extra layer of satisfaction for Saints fans on this occasion was it was more about Rado Cierzniak’s butter fingers than the pureness of May’s long-range strike.
The shot was probably actually going wide.
May’s other Tannadice goal was the opener in this season’s 2-0 win.
Jenkinson’s celebration was good but ‘hitting the griddy’ for the first time was better!
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