My understanding of the term ‘bogey team’ is that it’s a side that your team can beat and should beat, but can’t over the course of a few fixtures or even seasons.
From United’s point of view, ‘bogey teams’ of the recent past are probably Gretna in season ‘07/’08 and over the past two seasons, Hamilton, Kilmarnock and Motherwell.
So if they are United’s ‘bogey teams’, what are Celtic? By my own reckoning, they are not a ‘bogey team’ because that would mean that the expectation was that we’d win against them, and that certainly wasn’t the case for the most part of the past decade. Referees like Charlie Richmond (who denied United a “stonewaller” at Tannadice the August before last) didn’t help matters, but I will concede that a lot of the time, perhaps the majority of the time, it was fair and square.
Our last victory over them was almost 10 years ago on 15th August 1999, 2-1 at Tannadice with goals from Dodds and Easton. We then lost the next 24 matches against Celtic including the 2005 Scottish Cup final.
That day at Hampden was strange in that we took around 20,000 Arabs. If the cup could have been won in terms of support, we’d have thrashed The Bhoys. We out-sung and out-supported the curiously subdued Hoops fans who seemed plain board! My only conclusion about that day is that is was just another final for Celtic, another wee trip down the road from Parkhead in expectation. We Arabs went in hope.
Our next point against Celtic was on 28th January 2006 when goals from Miller and Fernandez (2) brought a 3-3 draw.
The 13 meetings subsequently resulted in another seven draws, five Celtic wins and one win for them on penalties in the League Cup semi-final in possibly the most dramatic shoot-out that any football fan can remember.
Again that night, it was another lethargic Celtic support. In fact, Hampden wasn’t even half full. For a cold Wednesday night in January, the Arabs came though to the tune of perhaps 5,000 (I am guessing) of the 19,000 spectators. Perhaps it was another nonchalant Celtic support because they believed that it would be just another comprehensive thrashing of United? The Celtic support is otherwise normally quite impressive, I have to say.
The Hoops did, of course, get the win in the end, but only by a whisker. Morgaro Gomis was undoubtedly the Man of the Match and United showed once again why the term ‘Hampden Hoodoo’ was coined because of them.
I remember that after that match, myself and two other Arabs were walking back to our car with thousands of Celtic supporters coming towards us in the other direction. I’ve always found Celtic fans to be friendly and good natured and I was impressed by the banter exchanged between us. It was all in the spirit of ‘Well played’, ‘Great match’, ‘Next time we’ll get you’ and ‘That was a close one’. Had it been a few thousand Rangers fans coming towards us, I have to say that I’d have found that quite intimidating.
I digress. Right now, the best United side for generations are sitting in 4th spot in the SPL having played 10 fixtures. Make no mistake, this season it’s not Rangers v Celtic for once. It’s United v Hibs with the Old Firm there to make it a bit more interesting. I am in no doubt that for the first time since 2005, the SPL will finish with at least the Old Firm being split. Should United be able to maintain the form they’ve shown so far, we’ll finish in the top two.
Craig Levein’s squad is riddled with injury right now. Kenneth ,Webster, Scott Robertson, Wilkie and Sandaza are all out at present. Sandaza (who loves scoring against Celtic) hasn’t played at all this season and is now reported to be out for longer than originally thought (for another three months, I believe).
That is a tribute to the quality and tenacity shown by United so far in the SPL since August. We are getting points despite some of our best men being unavailable (and I mean no disrespect to the ones who have been on the park).
We did suffer defeat at the hands of St. Johnstone in the League Cup, a campaign we’ve previously done well in under Levein, but I believe that this will only galvanize the Terrors in the SPL.
Despite the match being called off at the break and being down 1-0 against the run of play, we weren’t worried about Rangers the other Sunday. We knew United would come out for the second half and win it.
It was a 2-0 victory to United at Rugby Park two Saturdays ago (where Rangers could only muster a point), and this time against Celtic, we’re not worried. This time, it’s us that are going into the match in expectation rather than hope.
There is a new New Firm, Dundee United and Hibs. We took a point from Parkhead, we’ll be taking three this Sunday, thank you very much.
Whilst I have a public platform to rant, I will close with a different subject - the Rangers Replay gate row.
Whatever your view on this, whatever the rights and wrongs may be on United's part (if any) I found something in the Monday edition of the Daily Record AKA Rangers News laughable.
It quoted The Rangers Supporters Trust spokesman David Edgar as saying, "Given Dundee United made an announcement at the game, at their own behest, you'd think they would have a moral obligation to the supporters to go through with it."
Firstly, had this game been abandoned at Ibrox, I doubt very seriously (given their £31 million debt and being on the brink of administration) that Rangers would let everybody back in for free for the replay.
And, in the past year what with the Manchester riot, Kyle Lafferty going down like a sack of spuds against Aberdeen, Ferguson and McGregor’s Scotland antics, Smith's conduct at Rugby Park and the fans behaviour in Romania, nobody connected with Glasgow Rangers Football Club is in any position whatsoever to be commenting on another club's morals.
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