Dundee United Hall of Famer Dave Bowman is backing the class of 2010 to achieve something a number of his fellow legends from the club’s golden era failed to do win the Scottish Cup.
Bowman played for United during their great spell of the 1980s and was still involved when the Tangerines ended their long wait to lift the trophy in 1994.
He counts himself fortunate given fellow Hall of Fame members like Dave Narey and Paul Hegarty never enjoyed such success.
And Bowman, now a youth coach at Tannadice, believes 16 years on the present crop of United stars have a great chance of following him in picking up winners’ medals.
“I played with great players like David Narey and Paul Hegarty who never won the Scottish Cup,” he said.
“By the time we won it the only ones left were myself, Maurice Malpas and Jim McInally. The rest were all new guys into the club.
“And trust me the memory of 94 sticks.
“People talk about 87 when we got to the UEFA and Scottish Cup finals.
“But we lost both and wound up with nothing to show from what was a terrific campaign.
“Seasons only count when you achieve something.
“And this one could be amongst this club’s best-ever if we can get to second place in the SPL and win the cup.”Smelling the flowersDrawing parallels with 94, Bowman had a chuckle when he read recently about boss Peter Houston scrapping training to take his players for breakfast.
“That’s the kind of thing Ivan Golac did for us,” he said.
“We thought Ivan had lost the plot at the time, smelling the flowers and all that stuff.
“But it worked.
“Housty hasn’t quite gone that far yet but you have to say his record since taking over is brilliant.”
Standing between United and a crack at the trophy are First Division Raith Rovers, who Bowman had a short spell with towards the end of his career.
And the man Tannadice supporters nicknamed Psycho is backing the Tangerines to overcome Rovers because they will not be complacent.
“We have seen what Raith did to Aberdeen and Dundee,” he said.
“And as in 1987 when we beat Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach but then we lost the Scottish Cup final to St Mirren proved, you can’t take anything for granted in semis and finals.Attitude”The attitude has to be spot on for these games.
“But to be fair to the United players they’ve been really at it all season. And they’ll take the warning from the results Raith have posted getting to this stage.”
Bowman (46) played 23 games for Rovers during the 1998-1999 season but he admits he is not held in anything like the regard at Stark’s Park that he is at Tannadice after becoming embroiled in a row with supporters during a match with Clydebank.
“I didn’t have the best of relationships with some of the fans after an incident involving Guido Van De Kamp,” he said.
“Guido was the fans’ favourite but didn’t come for a cross one day so I gave him a bit of stick.
“The supporters decided to give me a bit back and we had a wee disagreement.
“I was actually there recently watching Johnny Russell and Damian Casalinuovo and one of the Raith officials approached me saying they had a few old players going on at half-time and did I want to go on as well.
“I presume he hadn’t been at that Clydebank game.”