Dundee Utd 3
St Mirren 2
League (Championship)

Match Report

Dundee United welcomed relegation threatened St Mirren to Tannadice with the Terrors sitting in third place, only a point behind Falkirk. Despite a poor performance in the goalless draw at Ayr the previous weekend, Ray McKinnon only made one change to his starting line-up from that game with Willo Flood coming back into the side and Lewis Toshney dropping to the bench.

United got off to the perfect start in this match, but the opening goal on seven minutes caused serious controversy. Inter-play between Flood and Murray in midfield eventually saw the ball lofted forwards in the direction of Thomas Mikkelsen with St Mirren defender Gary Mackenzie in close attendance. With the ball still in the air, the Danish striker seemed to catch Mackenzie with a high boot and the latter collapsed in a heap but the referee waved play on and Mikkelsen made no mistake from seven yards, beating the keeper at his near-post with a thunderous shot from the tight angle. The St Mirren players and fans were much aggrieved by the decision, but shortly before the interval they hit back. The Buddies were awarded a free-kick in a wide area to the right of goal when Robson was adjudged to have fouled Lewis Morgan. Stevie Mallan delivered the ball into the box and it was Gary Mackenzie who headed home to pull St Mirren level.

United almost retook the lead after half time in spectacular fashion. Willo Flood took a quick free-kick, playing to Spittal who touched it inside to Murray, 25 yards from goal, and the ball sat up nicely for the United striker to lash an effort off the underside of O’Brien’s crossbar and Mikkelsen was unable to finish the rebound. Tony Andreu put United a head with a low placed shot from an indirect free-kick after McGinn’s pass-back to O’Brien was deemed deliberate from the officials. Flood touched the ball and Andreu hit the ball low and hard, straight through the goalkeeper and into the back of the net. St Mirren almost bounced back immediately with McGinn forcing Bell into a good save from a free-kick and Mackenzie heading narrowly over. With four minutes left on the clock however, the Buddies did equalise. A McGinn shot was blocked by Edjenguélé but the United defence were unable to effectively clear the loose ball and eventually it arrived at the feet of Josh Todd six yards from goal, marked by two tangerine shirts. The St Mirren player took the ball wide of goal in a bid to beat the defenders and seemed to have narrowed the angle too much to get a shot away but did brilliantly to angle a powerful drive across Cammy Bell’s goal and into his top left-hand corner to spark wild scenes in the away end. Those celebrations were soon curtailed as the match took another twist in the 90th minute. United substitute Wato Kuate’s hopeful shot from 30 yards was blocked by the feet of his own man, Mikkelsen, on the edge of the box, He played the ball back into the path of Blair Spittal, 20 yards out, and he controlled the pass with one touch and fired a low drive into the bottom right-hand corner of O’Brien’s net with another – the United man’s first goal of the season.

Match report written by Ben Nicholson