Rather bizarrely, Dundee United are the side we have done best against this season. We have played them twice, failed to lose either game and even managed to beat them at Tannadice. It's quite odd, especially when you consider we've struggled to draws with Hamilton and have lost twice to Kilmarnock. Our best results against the Arab in the last decade seem to have come in midweek games, so let's hope that continues tomorrow. Of course, there is one exception that rule, the fine 2-0 win on Tayside in 2007 when we were fighting the drop.
We desperately need to get three points out of this one. While our record anywhere is far from impressive, it's been pretty poor at home of late as we haven't won there since October. Not the most encouraging of records and one that we quickly need to sort out if we want to beat the drop. We've shown already this season that we can beat United and it's about time we end our near 10 year wait for a home win over them.
We aren't going to beat them unless we remember how to score goals. While we may have done that against Peterhead last midweek, we've failed to score in our last four league games and have yet to trouble the SPL score sheet in 2011. That must change, now. Why on earth both Paul McQuade and Aaron Mooy were dropped for last Saturday's game against St. Johnstone is beyond me. Peterhead not be very good, but both of them scored - more than the regulars managed in the original game. Partner McQuade with Michael Higdon, put Mooy in midfield for Patrick Cregg and we'll almost certainly look more attacking.
Sadly, I can't see it. We'll no doubt play Higdon on his own up front with McGowan in behind and Cregg, Steven Thomson and Jim Goodwin packing the midfield. It may frustrate the opposition, but it also frustrates our own fans and limits the number of chances. The one good thing about last weekend's game is it showed John Potter and Lee Mair are capable of playing together capably and we seemed to look more solid as a unit at the back. More of the same please - not that we have many other defensive options! On the injury front, we're still without Nick Hegarty, Garry Brady and Gareth Wardlaw.
United had a great season last year, finishing third and winning the Scottish Cup. It was made even more impressive considering they lost Craig Levein half way through the campaign and Peter Houston suffered a hammering at Ibrox early in his time in charge. However, after last season's success he managed to keep most of the team together and things looked set for another good year. They haven't been doing quite as well, but the bad weather means they are a few games behind everyone else and could still challenge for Europe. They're also still in the Scottish Cup, although needed penalties to see off Ross County. Actually, that "although" is a bit cheeky considering we lost to County on penalties in the League Cup this season.
The Arabs have one of the hottest properties in Scottish football for them at the moment in the shape of David Goodwillie. The striker has scored 23 goals so far this season and with clubs circling, it's surely only a matter of time until he moves on to bigger things - or Rangers. With his future both on and off the pitch (and we won't talk about the latter for legal reasons) up in the air, it'll be interesting to see if that has any effect on his form. United will be hoping it doesn't as he's scored more than half of their goals in the league this season. A striker is surely a priority, regardless of what happens to Goodwillie.
United are pretty strong throughout the team and have a number of good players that could easily do a job for the Old Firm. Craig Conway is a terrific winger who I thought would have been an ideal replacement for Aiden McGeady when he left Celtic. Morgaro Gomis and Prince Bauben are solid in the middle and Danny Swanson is capable of getting forward and supporting Goodwillie and Jon Daly. Scott and David Robertson are also handy while with Dusan Pernis in goals and Garry Kenneth, Sean Dillon and Paul Dixon in defence, they are a fairly tight unit at the back.
But despite that, we've managed to take four points off of them this season - and it would be brilliant if we could increase that tally even further tomorrow night.
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