Southside's View

Last updated : 27 September 2004 By Southside Arab

After last year all us Arabs thought we had seen the last of performances and results that had us ashamed and embarrassed, well at least for a wee while anyway.

It felt good to be an Arab - there was a real sense of pride and it felt like we were going places. I remember one particular game last year the game we won 3-2 away at Livi midweek. It was a fine game in which United showed the strength and character to come back from 2-1 down to win 3-2. There was a reasonable 450 Arabs at that game (considering it was midweek) and there was a real feel good factor. I remember seeing the joy on Jimmy McIntyre's face when the final whistle went as he and the rest of the team went over to thank the United fans for there backing. It really felt like there was a point in supporting United because the players seemed like they were up for it and were getting fairly decent results most of the time. What happened?


This year has been a nightmare so far. The 1-1 draw V Dunfermline was fairly positive we didn't play great but I knew a point was the best we would get and I thought that point was going to set us up for that all important derby win.

And then the match against
Dundee which we were all so confident about well they showed us all right! The reason Dundee won that match was not because of the penalty, the reason they one that match is because their players know what a derby means unlike ours (in saying that the penalty didn't help).

Livingston away was good for a wee while until our defense fell apart in the 85th minute which I don't think would have happened if Ritchie hadn't unfortunately got injured.

Then Caley. Well I feared the worst there when that cheating ******* Jaunjo dived to give them a penalty, but thankfully we came back from that to win 2-1 but it still wasn't that great a performance.

Then the Sheep at Tannadice well I was happy with that performance and it proved what I thought all along, that the Sheep were a boring boring team and were nothing better than the average and I thought after this game maybe we will be ok this season.


And as for the last 2 weeks well that was just beyond belief. I mean 4-2 to s***e like Motherwell - my god we were dire that game - I found it difficult to celebrate our first goal (even tho it put us 1-0 up) because the first half was that dire. And as for the 2nd half well that was just awful as I sat and watched the pathetic Motherwell fans sing their predictable songs .

And as for Killie this week that was a new low - 5-2 V Killie? Killie!! Where did we go so wrong? Last year we beat them 4-1 now we are losing 5-2 to them. This was the first time I had left early in my life although it I only left at 89 minutes after their 5th goal. In saying that I should have gone with my instinct and left after United's goal to catch the early train.

Where has it all gone wrong? Surely all our problems aren't down to Gallo and Charlie leaving?


The problem as I see it is that the players don't give a shit! Sorry but going on the amount of effort I've seen in the last 2 games they don't actually care.

Some players at United just aren’t good enough in my opinion e.g. McCracken, Bullock, McInnes, Hirschfeld, Kerr, Duff, Dodds (although he played well on Saturday he is no where near good enough)

But some just aren't performing well eg. Innes, Archibald, Robson so what has happened to these players? Something is obviously rotten at the core!

The only players I think have done well this season are Wilson and Jimmy McIntyre and even they are not without fault.

We as fans have not been blameless either on a lot of occasions I have seen the United fans turn on the team very easily but to be honest it is understandable but it's not acceptable. We need to get behind the team shouting stuff like "your useless McCracken" doesn't help we need to get behind the team whether they play well or not.

Something needs to change, and it's not the manager - sacking McCall would only make things worse and some people need to realise that. Results and performances need to improve and McCall needs to accept that it's not the referee's fault that we keep losing it is his and the players fault!

So let’s just hope things improve and this is only a minor blip on United’s quest for a 2nd top 6 finish in a row.

We can only hope...