42

Tannadice Park

Tuesday 23^rd September 2025

Last week a report from UEFA revealed that ‘football fans across Scotland have recorded significantly higher top-flight attendances per capita than any other league in Europe’. In itself this wasn’t a surprise, Scotland has topped this table for three years running now. What was a surprise though was the size of the gap to other European leagues. Scotland’s rate of attendance was over 70% higher than second place Portugal and more than double the self-professed ‘greatest league in the world’, the English Premier League. To further reinforce the strength of support in Scotland, attendance rates in Scotland are increasing at almost double the rate of the European average. On these measures Scottish football is in rude health.

One of the reasons suggested for this strong performance is Scotland’s geography. As a small country even the longest away days are shorter journeys than might be seen in other European countries and with such a high concentration of the population (and therefore football clubs) in the central belt there are lots of long-standing local rivalries that see high attendance figures from both home and away fans.

Despite this, tickets to matches in Scotland generally, and even in the Premiership in particular, are usually not difficult to get hold of. Most games do not sell out and, in the lower leagues, it’s often still possible to pay on the gate and walk into the ground a few minutes before kick-off.

There are a few notable exceptions to this though. Both Celtic and Rangers sell out all of their home games and, when playing away, will normally sell out the ground of whoever they are playing. The bigger derby fixtures will also often prove difficult to get tickets for, not necessarily because they will fully sell out (although some certainly do) but because home teams will often limit ticket sales to fans that have previously bought tickets from them to avoid having away fans in the home sections of the ground.

I had already fallen foul of this policy earlier in the season when I had tried to get a ticket to the Dundee vs Dundee United derby. Despite contacting Dundee’s ticket office directly and explaining what I was looking for they were unable to sell me a ticket. It’s a bit frustrating when you then see plenty of empty seats when watching the highlights but the policy itself is understandable.

At first I thought I’d be in the same position for tonight’s game because when Dundee United announced the rules around ticket sales the same requirement to have previously bought tickets to another game was in place again. Luckily for me I was able to use the fact that I had attended Pittodrie earlier in the season to get a ticket through Aberdeen instead. It meant that for the first time during this tour of the 42 I’d be sat in the away section rather than with the home fans, but I was in!

The reason for the restrictions on ticket sales is that Dundee United and Aberdeen have history. Although not a traditional derby due to the 65 miles between the cities the two clubs developed a strong rivalry during the 1980s that led to the fixture becoming known as the New Firm. In that time Aberdeen won three league titles, four Scottish Cups, two Scottish League Cups, the European Cup Winner’s Cup and the European Super Cup. Meanwhile Dundee United won one league title and two Scottish League Cups whilst making four Scottish Cup finals, a UEFA Cup final, and the semi-final of the European Cup. It marked the last time that Scottish football wasn’t dominated by one, or both, of the Old Firm clubs and the only time in history that neither Celtic nor Rangers won the league for three consecutive seasons.

Aberdeen’s season to date has been miserable. A win against Championship side Greenock Morton in the Scottish League Cup has been the high point in a run that has otherwise seen them knocked out of the Europa League in the play-off round and sat bottom of the Premiership with one point (and no goals) from four games. A number of big name signings just before the transfer window closed increased optimism around the club and although performances have begun to improve, this has not yet been reflected in results.

Dundee United have seemed to be in a much better place but when you actually look at their results they really aren’t too far ahead of Aberdeen. Although they sit fifth in the league they have only won once and are just four points clear of bottom place. They’ve been knocked out of European competition entirely (albeit with creditable performances along the way) and went out of the Scottish League Cup at the earliest opportunity. In short, both teams needed a win from tonights match to try and get their season pointing in the right direction but Aberdeen would certainly be feeling more of the pressure.

As the game was a Tuesday evening there wasn’t really an opportunity to get the train down to Dundee after work and still arrive in time for the match. As a result I decided to drive down in the newly repaired i10 (a seized brake on the driver’s side rear for anyone that is interested…) and look for somewhere to park near to Tannadice. I left in good time as traffic heading south from Aberdeen can sometimes be inexplicably slow and I wasn’t sure how much of a walk I would need to plan for at the other end.

The journey itself was fine with increasing numbers of cars filled with Aberdeen fans on the road as we approached Dundee. I found a spot to park that I thought would allow for a quick escape after the game and walked down towards the ground. Dundee’s footballing claim to fame is the proximity of their two football grounds. Every football fan knows of how close they are to one another but seeing it myself for the first time was still a little surreal. I came across Dens Park first and within seconds of passing the far end of the ground I had reached Tannadice, there is literally just a small playpark between them. I had a bit of time on my hands so I decided to walk all the way round Tannadice before heading into the ground.

The ground itself was odd in an absolutely brilliant way. Once through the gate I found myself in a small, windowless, and seemingly doorless room. It took longer than I’d prefer to admit for me to realise that the door to the stairway was almost back behind the gate and very hidden away. Having successfully navigated the initial escape room I was now on a stairway that twisted and turned back on itself multiple times in a very disorientating way. Just as I was beginning to wonder where I was headed a door appeared in front of me and on opening it I was greeted with a view of the pitch from the halfway line.

Immediately I thought Tannadice was a great little ground. It has a capacity of just over 14,000 which I think is the sweetspot for stadiums, any bigger than that and you start to feel quite removed from the action on the pitch. It’s also a vivid tangerine (don’t call it orange!) to match Dundee United’s home colours which is a brilliant colour for a kit and for the inside of a ground. Probably the most interesting thing about Tannadice however is that it manages to pack five stands around the pitch and they’re all quite different.

The George Fox stand runs the full length of the pitch on the north side of the ground and was built as part of the conversion of Tannadice to an all seater stadium. The Eddie Thompson stand is the newest addition and houses the most vocal section of Dundee United’s supporters behind one of the goals. At the opposite end is The Shed which usually houses away fans and still shows signs of it’s previous terracing. Along the south side of the ground there is the Jim McLean stand which stretches half the length of the pitch and is also used for away fans for bigger games. Alongside this is the Jerry Kerr stand, a cantilevered stand which is L-shaped and bends around the corner to meet the Eddie Thompson stand. It’s all a bit mad in a fantastic way.

I found my seat and was impressed by the large and loud Aberdeen support that had travelled down for the game. The chants started long before kick-off and were drowning out any efforts that the Dundee United fans made to be heard. The fans in The Shed seemed to particularly enjoy giving Terry the Terrier, Dundee United’s mascot, a hard time. Unusually, United seemed to also have a second, puppy version, of their mascot who made the wildly misjudged decision to give it back to the fans before quickly realising the error of his ways and retreating to the halfway line when the chants changed to something that I won’t repeat here (and probably shouldn’t be repeated anywhere…).

The players emerged and the game was quickly underway. Scottish football is renowned for the poor quality of officiating and tonight was no exception. The most egregious case of this will appear later but the funniest was definitely the moment within the first five minutes when the game’s first foul was missed because the referee had dropped his whistle and so chose to wave ‘play on’ when he realised he couldn’t blow for a free kick. The teams were even early on with half chances for both sides but nothing clinical or clear cut.

Around 20 minutes in Dundee broke clear but Zach Sapsford was clearly offside about ten yeards inside the Aberdeen half. One of my pet peeves about the modern game is the inability or unwillingness of linesmen to flag for clear and obvious offsides. Such was the case here and play continued until the move broke down near the corner flag. At this point the linesman flagged for offside and remarkably both he and the referee insisted that Aberdeen take the resulting free-kick from where he had raised the flag rather than 40 yeards further up the pitch where the offence had been committed (and no, we’re not at the worst example of officiating yet).

On 24′ Amar Fatah was played in down the left hand side and pulled the ball back for Sapsford whose shot forced a good save from Dimitar Mitov. Whilst United were attacking down both flanks and switching the ball quickly and accurately Aberdeen looked frozen by the fear of making mistakes and would often pass sideways or backwards rather than risk losing the ball by trying to advance up the pitch. As a result they seemed to have a startling ability to turn attack into defence.

United’s next break came when Sapsford challenged Sivert Nilsen for the ball on the halfway line. The ball ricocheted and ended up at the feet of Ivan Dolček whose shot was well saved by Mitov. Dolček collected the rebound and looked to play in Sapsford, when Aberdeen finally managed to get the ball off him the referee blew his whistle and brought play back for the foul by Sapsford in the initial phase of the attack. Somehow advantage had been played, through multiple phases of play, for the team that had committed the foul. Aberdeen ended up with a free kick inside Dundee United’s half of the pitch and no-one in the ground, whether on the pitch or in the stands, seemed to be able to understand what had just happened.

On the stroke of halftime United took an almost inevitable lead. A long throw from Will Ferry wasn’t fully dealt with and dropped to Dolček on the edge of the box. He took his time, sized it up, and volleyed it cleanly past Mitov and into the bottom left hand corner of the goal.

Conceding right on the stroke of halftime isn’t ideal but occasionally the opportunity to regroup during the break helps a side come out for the second half reinvigorated and with a new game plan. In such situations the worst thing you can then do is to immediately concede another. Welcome to Aberdeen’s car crash of a season. A Dundee United corner was taken by Fatah who crossed the ball in to the near post. A largely unmarked Vicko Ševelj was able to flick the ball on to a completely unmarked Bert Esselink who had the easiest of jobs to nod into an empty net from five yards out. The chants of ‘you’re getting sacked in the morning’ might have started in the Dundee United end but were taken up quickly and loudly by the Aberdeen fans as well.

At this point it was all Dundee United. Balls were coming into the box from every angle and the only things keeping the scoreline within Aberdeen’s reach were some wayward shots from United and some spectacular saves from Mitov including one from Dolček that was hit so hard it seemed almost impossible that Mitov had kept it out.

The bombardment continued until Aberdeen manager, Jimmy Thelin, decided to make some changes. This finally seemed to bring some intent and purpose to Aberdeen’s attacks although in truth they still never looked like getting back into the game. The closest Aberdeen came to a goal was an effort from Stuart Armstrong that came back off the crossbar.

As the game ticked into the final ten minutes Dundee United’s players resorted to that common tactic for any side with the lead, the onset of cramp so severe that it renders professional athletes unable to remain standing. It’s frustrating to see but every team does it and it’s easy to understand why. When your own team resorts to this every fan loves it but one man sat behind me couldn’t cope with what he was seeing. ‘It’s just absolutely destroying our momentum’ he resignedly said, more to himself than anyone else. I’m not sure which game he’d been watching as there hadn’t been any evidence of Aberdeen having any momentum all evening, some fans would say there hasn’t really been any since last November. Given that Aberdeen have now gone five league games, or seven and a half hours of football, at the start of the new league campaign without scoring a goal I doubt the real problem is Dundee United’s clock management in the dying minutes of the game.

At the start of the night there hadn’t been a great deal between the teams in the league table, on the pitch however there was a huge gulf in class between them. United looked strong all over and with plenty of ideas on how to break Aberdeen down. Aberdeen on the other hand looked nervous, one dimensional, and toothless. Fans have blindly insisted that they’re a better team than their results have shown but that’s not what was in evidence tonight. With a gap already opening up to teams above them in the league and a European campaign to navigate their way through in the coming months I suspect that Aberdeen are well and truly in a relegation battle.

The Facts

• Ground
  • Tannadice Park
• Home
  • Dundee United
• Away
  • Aberdeen
• Competition
  • Scottish Premiership
• Result
  • 2 – 0
• Scorers
  • Ivan Dolček, Bert Esselink
• Attendance
  • 11,052
• Cost
  • £31
• Total distance travelled
  • 130 miles
• Transport
  • Car
• My MotM
  • Vicko Ševelj, Dolček could also have been a choice here but Ševelj seemed to be a constant thorn in Aberdeen’s side in the centre of midfield. Unflashy but never really making any mistakes, he was the agitator-in-chief and definitely got under the skin of a couple of Aberdeen players. A clever run and header provided the assist for the second goal that sealed the win.