CRAIG Levein's pre-match air of insouciance regarding his team's lack of victories was exposed as a fragile facade in the wake of Dundee United's first SPL win in 13 attempts and their 100th overall.
When the final whistle blew, the club's players and travelling supporters celebrated in a manner more in keeping with lifting a trophy, and their manager happily admits to being caught up in the delirium.
In fact Levein was so disorientated by th
is first league success since late March that someone normally so thoughtful and composed in his utterances ended up sounding slightly foolish on national radio following the lunchtime derby.
He said: "I was on Radio Scotland after the game and said I didn't care how the other games had finished as only our result mattered, only to be reminded that none of the others had even kicked off yet."
The tacit acknowledgement is that while Levein was publicly dismissing the relevance of damaging statistics he was studying them as closely as a short selling speculator does the FTSE 100. It certainly led to a marked change in routine as the Dundee United manager swapped his designer suit for a tracksuit and the directors box for the technical area on a day when he even took part in the pre-match warm-up.
Of course football people tend to be superstitious at the best of times, but Levein made it clear there was more to it than that.
He said: "I prefer to be in the stand, but when your team are suffering from a lack of confidence you need to help in whatever way you can. I just feel in the circumstance I had better not be distant from the players as it's important to show we are all together in this.
"I'll hopefully go back up in the stand when I can, but we have to be together and today I got a sweat up for the first time in 20 years."
That was appropriate as the victory was built on perspiration rather than any flamboyant football during a match extremely low in quality, perhaps not surprisingly given the background to this derby.
Levein was convinced that his side only needed a bit of good fortune to kick-start their season and they certainly got that with the decisive moment of a match where neither side seemed to possess the skill needed to create a goal.
The irony is it was a player the Dundee United manager moved on during his ill-fated spell in charge at Leicester City who provided it as Tommy Wright inexplicably handled a Craig Conway corner in 47 minutes. The former England youth international probably did more for Levein that moment than he had during their entire time together down south as Spanish striker Francisco Sandaza sent Aberdeen goalkeeper Jamie Langfield the wrong way from the resulting spot kick.
That was enough to inflict Aberdeen's third home defeat of the season and guarantee their players departed to a chorus of disapproval from their supporters after another lacklustre display.
For all the home side's possession, visiting goalkeeper Lukasz Zaluska only had two serious saves to make, while Gary McDonald shot high over the bar three times when well positioned.
Now a nascent crisis can only be stymied by victory at Kilmarnock in the Co-operative Insurance Cup on Wednesday before a trip to Celtic Park in the league this weekend.
Typically, Aberdeen manager Jimmy Calderwood takes no pleasure from the fact they have the chance to play away from the pressure building up at Pittodrie. He said: "I am not relieved that our next two games are away from home as I am not a person that runs away from things.
"We should have won this game, but we have let ourselves down and I can understand the frustration of the supporters. You can see what it means to win here as Inverness were having a party after they beat us, Hamilton did likewise and now United did the same.That is the stature we have got and we have got to handle that."
MAN OF THE MATCH: Lee Wilkie (Dundee United)The visitors' captain was outstanding as he and Darren Dods repelled the physical threat of Aberdeen's big strikers Lee Miller and Tommy Wright. Even an injury near half time failed to blunt the display of someone who was unyielding in the air and on the deck.
The full article contains 754 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
