Dundee Utd 0
Rangers 3
League (SPL)

Match Report

United’s season ended in bitter disappointment when they went down to a heavy 3-0 defeat at the hands of newly crowned champions Rangers. Goals in the first half from Lafferty and Mendes had Rangers in control and when Boyd scored five minutes after the break the game was effectively out of sight for United. To make matters worse Aberdeen managed to beat Hibs at Pitoddrie which allowed them to leapfrog United and secure European football next season.

Craig Levein made three changes to the United line up for the hugely important final game of the season. Kovacevic, Caddis and Dods came in for Dillon, Sandaza and Kenneth who all had to be content with a place on the bench. After a controversial win over Aberdeen, Walter Smith named an unchanged side for their title decider.

United were dealt a major blow with only five minutes gone when Davis found Boyd who tried to shoot but despite failing to connect properly the ball fell to Lafferty who made no mistake. United began to come back into the match and played some decent stuff only to be thwarted by a well organised visitors’ defence.

The closest they went in the opening period was when Dixon almost caught out Alexander directly from a corner kick. With half an hour gone Boyd had the ball in the net but he was ruled offside and then a minute later Kovacevic remarkably managed to clear a Boyd shot off the line. However on the stroke of half time Rangers doubled their lead. Edu won a dubious free kick at the edge of the box after a challenge from Dods. The wall managed to charge down the free kick but the ball landed at the feet of Mendes and he fired home from the edge of the box.

The game and in fact the league title were as good as wrapped up when on the 51 minute mark Rangers made it 3-0. Mendes fed Whittaker who played a low ball along the six yard line and Boyd slammed home to send the large visiting support wild. United tried as hard as they could to make the score line look better and near the end Kenneth forced a fine save from Alexander and then Sandaza hit a low shot that the Scotland goalkeeper managed to save. The United fans were eagerly awaiting a goal from Hibs which would have meant fourth place but it wasn’t to be and the season ended disappointingly.