Tangerine Dream for Inverness.

No let up for Butcher's boys this weekend as the battle for top six intensifies.  The dream of staying in the top six is fading for Inverness while United have gone on to greater things, a far cry from the first meeting this season when the Tangerines were crushed on their own turf by the newly promoted Caley Jags.

Four superb goals at Tannadice gave notice to the SPL clubs that the boys were back in town, but more recently we have slipped a little and now find ourselves just out of the elite group, with United up to fourth and still with a game in hand on most teams.

Both clubs played in midweek and United certainly had the better fortune.  Inverness battled hard in their Scottish Cup quarter final and ran Celtic close before bowing out of the national competition after a 2-1 defeat in the Highlands.  It could have been a different outcome had the Inverness defence not hit the pause button to allow Joe Ledley to score both Celtic goals, and once again the makeshift defence has let the side down.  Rooney buried a penalty to open the scoring but Ledley levelled within a couple of minutes before nodding home unchallenged in the second half.  Nevertheless, Inverness gave an encouraging performance, much better than the recent dirge dished out against the Arabs. 

United climbed to fourth in the SPL with a 2-0 victory at a foggy Tannadice, courtesy of a late Johnny Russell brace. Peter Houston's side are on a decent run just now, with four straight SPL wins including that 2-0 win in Inverness at the beginning of March, as they play catch up.  United are, in fact, unbeaten in seven games, including their 2-2 draw with Motherwell in the Scottish Cup.  Sutton had scored twice for the Steelmen, but United levelled with goals from Goodwillie and Daly.  Goodwillie's goal was a spectacular overhead kick, eat your heart out Wayne Rooney.

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davie goes back a long way, and he recalls some stories from deep inside his memory bank.

1001 Arabian nights

 My first memory of a football match was in the enclosure at Tannadice with my grandad in 1966. The ball was hoofed into touch near us, and I threw it back to the United No.7 who gave me a broad grin and a wink. His name was Lennart Wing, and he sold me on fitba. My granda told me then that the game “wisnae the same as it used to be” and never figured out that my interest in it would continue unabated to this day past Willie Pettigrew’s sideburns, proper shorts and 80’s casuals. But I’m getting ahead of myself here. I could just as easily be telling you that I was a Hibs fan, that’s what United were christened in 1909. There was, after all, a place in Dundee called Tipperary at that time so the Erse were not uncommon. Green & white leapt into a rebranding in 1924 and Dundee United were conceived wearing black & white, their “proper” colours. This lasted until 1969, when they played Dallas Tornado on an American tour and the manager’s wife thought their shirts looked “awfy braw” They were tangerine. No replica shirts in those days, I remember pestering my mum for an orange t-shirt that was never off my back. It could have been worse, just ask Heilan Dee. Nae Alan Gilzean for me. The late 70’s and early 80’s were prime time but always pursued with less of a demented vigour than the other half of the “new firm.” I guess that’s why United don’t seem crushed by their history in the same way as Aberdeen. 1982-3 saw a league win clinched in, of all places, Dens Park. It was like finding a £50 note in the cludgie! 1987 saw a UEFA cup final appearance in a heartrending/ hilarious year when United fell at the final hurdle in every competition they entered. If they were a horse, someone would have shot them. That team, however, gave me my first ever holiday away with my mates to Barcelona. A week of alcohol intake reaching self-harm proportions culminated in a win in the Camp Nou. Even through the vodka, we knew it mattered. I fell off a flagpole in a wee town called Blanes. I still have the scars. All this good time stuff was challenged only slightly by Jim MacLean, possibly the grumpiest wee man who ever lived. I remember him threatening to punch Hamish MacAlpine at a Forfarshire Cup game at Arbroath for swinging on the crossbar. No such thing as a dead rubber for Jim. United’s inevitable slide back to the middling girth of Scottish football was always enlivened by the nuggets that they unearthed; Duncan Ferguson, aka Duncan disorderly, Ivan Golac the dysfunctional Serbian hippy, Andy Gray sexist pundit etc. The best however was Sẽnor Walter Rojas and his story is thus. Jim McLean had been sent videos of a striker playing in the Argentine leagues, whose club was looking to cash in. United decided to take a chance on the guy, only when it came to the negotiations the player didn’t fancy a move to Dundee and was going to hang around in Buenos Aires. Undeterred, his agent said he had another player just as good who did fancy a crack at the sub arctic industrial wasteland. United took a chance there and then and signed Rojas without looking at him. He fetched up and trained, looked awful, complained of the weather, food, local talent etc. and generally got on McLean’s wick. He lasted less than a month and was sent back to Argentina. He was a footballer apparently, but there is a persistently credible rumour that he was actually a basketball player. Only in the land of the Beano. In the eighties, United won something; the cup, defeating Rangers 1-0. That day saw the elevation to near sainthood of one Craig Brewster. Erudite, intelligent and resourceful he seemed to have all the attributes of the successful manager in the making. It all went to pot after that, getting better only last year when they won the cup. Again. So we fetch up here at Arabia today, scene of our generally acknowledged best display of the season, cracking goals, the lot. Kevin McCann’s gone, but the rest remain, and are on a bit of form after disposing of Motherwell in an easy-peasy-japanesey style. United are also playing well and these matches have a history of being close. After Wednesday night’s loss to Celtic, we might be a bit down but there is the real consolation that Hayes and Doran are back and will offer a better counter to Conway and Swanson than that displayed in the last game. More of the same from the rest of the troops should reap dividends, United will be cock-a-hoop at beating the Jam Tarts 2-0 the same night, a result that consolidates their 4^th position and gives them serious designs on 3^rd. I don’t think we should underestimate them; Goodwillie is still on a high after that goal, several are called up to Levein's sacrificial squad to play Brazil and even the returning Kovacevic has got up to speed. All 94 mph of it, apparently. There are, after a trawl of the meedja, no indications of further injury, plague or scurvy amongst either sides troops although United must be getting a bit knackered by now. Life, as Ronan Keating would say, is a rollercoaster, and a downward swing is in order. Prediction; a sneaky but satisfying 1-0 win for the Caley Jags.

Latest team news:-  As you were for Inverness.  Sanchez, Proctor, Gillet and Shinnie all sidelined but Doran and Hayes showed no ill effects after their substitutes appearance in midweek.  The Tangerines have Scott Severin on the verge of a long awaited comeback.  Peter Houston is also suffering some long term absentee's, notably Garry Kenneth, Craig Conway and Darren Dods, while Prince Buaben is suspended.