WHAT a difference a year makes. Rewind 12 months and both Dundee United and Kilmarnock were subject to vastly contrasting fortunes.
United, spurred on by the creative endeavour of Barry Robson and the goalscoring prowess of Noel Hunt, were the SPL pace setters and it appeared that manager Craig Levein had something of a Midas touch. Saturday's visitors to Tannadice Kilmarnock, o
n the other hand, were in the opening stages of what would prove to be an injury-ravaged and extremely disappointing season.
With a squad nearing full fitness and an astute signing on board in the shape of Manuel Pascali, Killie are now approaching top gear and eased to the league summit with a comfortable win over Levein's side.
True, Killie effectively threatened twice in this match and scored on both occasions. However, this is an enviable quality and one which set the Ayrshire side apart from United.
It is testament to the high regard with which Levein is held within the media circles of Scottish football that United were widely tipped to finish third in the SPL this season.
However, the reality is that 2008 has yielded only five league victories and on the basis of their recent performances United will struggle to achieve such lofty ambitions. It is surely no coincidence that their downturn in fortunes can be traced back to the sale of the talismanic Robson in January and that they are yet to score more than one goal in any league game since Hunt's departure this summer.
It was hard to concur with Levein's post-match assertion that this had been a relatively satisfactory display. He said: "In the first half we played fantastically well and the big disappointment was the final delivery. I am really pleased with the way we played, but we got hit with two sucker punches."
It is difficult to conclude anything other than the very failing he identified is a major shortcoming within the squad he himself has assembled. United have one winger in their armoury, Craig Conway, who was consigned to the substitute's bench. A neat but essentially flat midfield enjoyed plenty of possession, yet to watch the home side complete pass after pass, with little inspiration, was to wonder exactly how Levein expected to pressurise a miserly Killie rearguard which is still to concede a goal this season.
That Levein asked Danny Swanson and Francisco Sandaza to shoulder the burden of providing a spark to United's play smacked somewhat of desperation. Swanson is a youngster with an abundance of talent, yet the attacking midfielder is also a player Levein has hitherto continually described as not being ready for the rigours of the SPL.
Levein had also suggested it was too soon to hand Sandaza a first start in tangerine and appeared to err in doing so for the Spaniard, still short of match practice, was lost.
It was as though United's central defender Garry Kenneth knew what lay ahead when as early as the second minute he stepped forward to blast a long-range effort against the Killie crossbar. Following this early scare, Kilmarnock goalkeeper Alan Combe could hardly have asked for a more relaxing day.
How Levein must wish he had the use of Mehdi Taouil, the diminutive Moroccan who pulled the strings for Kilmarnock. His short corner caught United asleep and David Fernandez whipped in a teasing cross for Gavin Skelton to head past Lukas Zaluska to give the away team the lead five minutes before the break. Then his delightful reverse pass on the hour mark set Danny Invincibile on his way to make the points safe with a cool low finish. "I thought our defence was magnificent and our tactics worked," said Kilmarnock manager Jim Jefferies. How right he was.
The full article contains 637 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
