Cup tie action at Station Park

The battle-weary ‘Loons’ players get a break from the hectic league programme on Friday night when Premiership Dundee United make the short trip up the A92 for a fourth-round Scottish Cup tie.

Disappointingly as all home supporters know, the Athies go into the game with a vastly depleted squad due to the long term injury situation at the club and also the fact that a handful of the players recruited since the turn of the year were cup-tied with their previous clubs.

That is how many understandably many wonder why two players who would have been available to Gary were sent out on loan on deadline day a couple of weeks back.

Grant Anderson, Michael Anderson, Callum Moore, Andy Munro and Martin Scott are the players who miss out for this reason, while Hamish Thomson serves a one-match cup tie ban following his red card in the third round defeat of Edinburgh City.

Thankfully the remaining fourteen or fifteen members of the squad would appear to have come through the recent five-game spell in eleven days without further injury worries.

It will nevertheless be a monumental task for the home side against Micky Mellon’s side who just missed out on a top-six spot in the Premiership at the vital 33 game mark the other week.

The game itself kicks off at 7.45 p.m. and is live on the BBC Scotland channel which is a real bonus for supporters of both clubs and a wee financial boost into the bargain which will no doubt delight the Directors at Station Park and Tannadice.

League cup Final referee Don Robertson is the man in the middle.