Dundee Utd 0
Kilmarnock 0
League (SPL)

Match Report

United’s chase for Europe suffered a minor blow when they battled out a dour goalless draw against Kilmarnock at Tannadice. In a game with little incident there was further bad news for the home side when Paul Dixon was sent off towards the end when he was adjudged to have fouled Danny Invincible who was in a goalscoring position.

After securing a top six place with a deserved victory over Hamilton last weekend it was of little surprise that Craig Levein made minimal changes for the visit of Kilmarnock. Unsurprisingly fit again regulars Warren Feeney and Morgaro Gomis came in for David Robertson and Andis Shala who both had to be content with a place on the bench.

The first half of the match took a long time to get going and in fact it took almost 20 minutes before either side had a decent attempt at goal. A Clancy free kick was headed clear by Wilkie but the ball landed at the feet of Bryson and his fist time effort went narrowly wide.

United then went close shortly after when Conway shot wide after being teed up by Sandaza. With half an hour on the clock Bryson again tried his luck for the visitors but his powerful shot was parried by Zaluska and the ball was cleared by the home defence.

The major talking point of a poor half came with just over five minutes remaining when, just as Skelton went to shoot, he went down in the box – but with the visitors screaming for a penalty, the referee waved play on.

The tempo of the game picked up at the start of the second period and early on both United full backs Dixon and Caddis had good efforts from distance that Combe managed to save. With 20 minutes left, United had their best chance of the afternoon when Conway set up Dixon who sent in a rasping shot that was unlucky to find the side netting. The game though failed to produce much more until the final ten minutes. Firstly Taouil had a great chance for Killie when he was free in the box but Zaluska did superbly well to save. Then with four minutes left Gibson played a fine pass to Invincible who looked to be pulled back by Paul Dixon and as he was the final man the referee showed no hesitation in sending the United man off.