Dundee Utd 2
Aberdeen 2
League (Premier Division)

Match Report

Mark Perry made his first team debut against his home town club as Aberdeen came to Tannadice seeking to end a goal drought which they had endured for more than 450 minutes of New Firm derbies. They would have arrested that run after a mere 13 minutes had Alan Main not smartly diverted a Jess header round the post. Eight minutes later Jess and Booth combined again to finally nail that scoring bogey. Booth raced to the bye-tine and Eion Jess swept his cutback into the far corner. A Scott Crabbe volley which flew just wide was about the only first half threat we posed to the Dons and when they went further in front early in the second half, a long unbeaten run against them looked over.

Bett's corner was nodded on by Jess which allowed Brian Irvine to finish off the set piece with a simple header from deep inside the six yard box. At that stage it would have been a brave man who would have hazarded a bet on United saving the game. But from the moment Billy McKinlay entered the field of play in midfield and we reverted to a flat back four, Aberdeen's previous dominance receded. Irvine inexplicably punched away a cross and Scott Crabbe's scintillating free-kick was hit with sufficient pace and swerve to evade the wall and deceive Snelders. Scott's first goal for the club threw us a life-line and within five minutes, our come-back was complete when Billy McKinlay's shot beat Snelders after taking a rather wicked deflection off the legs of Alex McLeish. So Aberdeen saw a comfortable two goal lead vanish and it might even have been worse because United almost snatched both points as they finished much the stronger side.