Dundee Utd 0
Hearts 1
League (Division One)

Manager's Programme Notes

Today we wind up our League programme for the season when we have Hearts as our visitors. We still have some local ties and friendlies to play.

On Monday we played our last away game when we met Partick Thistle at Firhill. This game had an end-of-the-season flavour about it. It was certainly far from being a thriller. We lost 2-4 but our chances of success took a severe blow when Tommy Neilson took a severe knock on the knee early in the game. He could hardly walk. We are keen to have our captain playing today. We brought him to Tannadice on Tuesday for special treatment and he has been under trainer Andy Dickson all week in the hope of getting him fit. We were down 0-2 at the interval but fought back to 1-2 and looked like getting on top. It was then that young Sandy Davie made his one slip and we were down 1-3. We lost another goal but got one back before the finish. Dennis Gillespie and Walter Carlyle got our goals.

We decided to "blood" two of our youngsters in goalkeeper Sandy Davie and outside left George Pattie, recently provisionally signed from Blairgowrie. Both did exceptionally well and we are confident that they will do better once they gather experience. Jimmy Briggs had an outstanding game.

Immediately after the Firhill game we went to Airdrie to play a Reserve League game. With Tommy Graham calling off we had to play Neilly Mochan at left back. Our boys outclassed the Airdrie side to win 4-0. Bobby Dougan hit home two. Bert Howieson one and new boy John Cochrane got the other.

We are now struggling to get past last season's points total of 33. We have 32 and must win today to pass the 33 mark. We look to our boys to make a very special effort. Hearts have shed a lot of their glory this season. They have put up many fine displays and some very poor ones. They have not been consistent and many changes have been made in their attack without hitting a successful combination.

But we are not expecting to meet an off-colour Hearts today. We know they can rise to great heights and their defence is one of the best in the country. We look for a hard and exciting game but with our team making an all-out effort we should reach the 34 points total to give us our very best in First Division football.

In many ways we will not be sorry to see the end of the season. With the new stand being built Tannadice has scarcely been a home this season. Most of our training has been done on public parks.

During the close season every minute will be spent on having the various rooms and offices of the new stand completed, moving the playing pitch and extending the terracing.

We hope to see the job accomplished before the new season commences. This alone will be a big morale booster to our players and we should further improve our position.