Dundee United defender Ross Graham has been reflecting on his side’s last-minute “out of the blue” defeat to Celtic back in January.
United have given the Hoops bother this term ahead of tomorrow night’s Scottish Cup quarter-final tie at Tannadice. The Arabs managed a draw at Celtic Park back in September and nearly did the same in January as they sat level at 0-0 heading into the final 10 minutes.
To make matters worse, Nir Bitton was sent off with only 9 minutes remaining. Thankfully, Liel Abada popped up with a winner in the dying seconds to bag a vital 3 points. All of a sudden, United were heading back to the City of Discovery with nothing to show for their defensive efforts.
That was a real blow for debuting youngster Graham, who netted against Rangers just several weeks ago. And as he looked ahead to tomorrow night’s Scottish Cup match, he’s been talking about that reflating moment against Ange Postecoglou’s men.
As quoted by the Glasgow Times, Graham said: “When you come up against Rangers and Celtic, you have to be switched on for the whole 90 minutes. If you switch off at one point, they’ll punish you for that. I think it’s about keeping your focus and concentration in games like this. It will be a big occasion with a big crowd, so you have to keep your wits about you.
“I’m always going to remember that Celtic game for the rest of my life because it was my debut. I remember it very clearly. I thought we were unlucky in the end to lose that goal right at the death. It was a good performance for us in the 90 minutes apart from when they scored.
“For me, it came out the blue. A few different things happened, with Scott McMann going down injured. There could’ve been a chance of me coming on then he made it through until half time. I just got the shout from the gaffer that I was going on. It was really unexpected but it probably worked out better for myself not to think about much, just getting thrown in.”
Ross Graham and Dundee United set to put up firm challenge for Celtic
If there’s one thing Dundee United have taught us this season it’s to never underestimate any opposition in the Premiership.
Many would’ve gone into September’s meeting with the Terrors at Parkhead feeling over-confident. Especially given manager Tam Courts is only in his first season in the role as an inexperienced gaffer. Yet they came to Parkhead and took a 1-1 draw whilst limiting us to very few goalscoring opportunities throughout.
Then, you look back to January’s game in which we thought we were certainties to win after Rangers drew at Ross County just hours earlier. Unfortunately, it didn’t pan out as straightforward as that, even if we did get the job done in the end.
Interestingly, our only trip to Tannadice this term has yielded a fine 3-0 win back in December. It was dominant, convincing, and a massive boost for Ange and the players. Something similar would be much-welcomed and given we’ve had a free week of training, you would hope we would be ready to go come kickoff.
But United have proven to be stubborn opposition this season. They still play confident, attacking football at Tannadice. We shouldn’t expect them to be as deep tomorrow night as they have done in previous games against us this term.
With a bit of luck, that suits us down to the ground.
In other news, “Some crazy decisions in this league”; Celtic star Nir Bitton hits back at January red card verdict
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