2023-24

Tannadice was a sell-out for United’s promotion party on the evening of Friday May 3rd as Jim Goodwin’s charges put the icing on the cake as SPFL Championship winners for 2023-24 with a 4-1 win.

Following United’s relegation from the Premiership in 2023, Goodwin was tasked with an assembling a squad capable of returning to the top tier at the first time of asking, and he did just that.

Closely matched by Ian Murray’s Raith Rovers for the vast majority of the campaign, it was United’s resilience in the final quarter of the season that saw them cross the line in relative comfort after they saw off their Kirkcaldy counterparts in a memorable 2-0 win at Tannadice.

United amassed a total of 75 points throughout the Championship season– the first team to do so since Rangers won promotion to the top flight in 2016.

It was a season of milestones.

Conceding just 23 goals in 36 games, United boasted the best defensive record in Scotland, while also accumulating a +50 goal difference. On-loan goalkeeper Jack Walton kept an incredible 23 clean sheets – a club tally beaten only by 11 other keepers in United's 115 year history. 19 of those were in the league.

Three United forwards finished on double figures for the season, with Louis Moult topping the charts on 20 and Kai Fotheringham and Tony Watt both ending up on 15. They are the first trio to return 15 goals or more each since Olofsson, McSwegan and Winters in 1997/98.

A close look at the stats revealed a total of 466 shots at goal in 36 games, with 186 on target.

Glenn Middleton, an ever-present having featured in every single game of the term, finished up with the most assists – 13 to be precise.

Such was the gulf between United and bottom-placed Arbroath, an aggregate of 17 goals to nil grew over four game during the season. Among them was a memorable 6-0 win to mark the 100-year anniversary of United’s name change, as the team took to the field wearing a special edition white and black kit in what turned out to be torrential rain at Tannadice.

Making the season all the more special, United became a top pick for BBC Scotland’s Championship coverage, playing no fewer than nine league games on Friday evenings – a quarter of their season.

The live TV coverage did not hurt attendances though, as United clocked up an average attendance of 8,408, the club’s fourth largest since the turn of the century.

But it was United's away form which ultimately set them apart from the rest. Remarkably, their 12 wins from 18 on the road set a new club record, bettering even that of the 1982/83 league championship winning side.