Terry stuck by the same eleven hoping that consistent team selection might be the key to finding the elusive first win of the year and he was proved to be correct.
A charitable view of the game would say the conditions made silky football difficult. A strong, swirling wind, cold temperatures and several stormy showers contributed to the scrappy game. Neither team could be accused of lacking in effort but the match was characterised by misplaced passes, bouts of head tennis and high clearances from defence.
Richie's header on the way into the net
Foran scored in each half and United had no counter. His first came in twenty six minutes and he had to thank McDonald for the assist. Richie collected the ball in the left half of the box following Skippy’s run and he found the far side of the net.
United, once again wearing a weird looking away strip, had a flurry at the start of the second half and we helped them out by conceding three or four free kicks in dangerous positions but they were unable to make anything of the set pieces.
In fifty six minutes Foran got a header at the far post from a Kerr corner and Stillie was beaten at his left hand post. Hammell almost added to the tally and he was unlucky to see his dead ball kick strike the post.
We kept the door shut as the game moved to a close. O’Donnell, Fagan and later McGarry came on with fresh legs to replace Kerr, McCormack and McDonald but on this occasion we did not give a late parting gift to the opposition.
We desperately needed the win and we got it but we will have to raise our performance if we are to take anything from Tynecastle or the Caledonian Stadium in the next few weeks.