Well I’ve only ever seen us win twice a Parkhead in all my years of supporting United. The first time was the memorable 3-2 winner in the league winning season when a 10 man United set us up for a glorious finish that season, and the second was in 1986 or 1987 when Eammon Bannon had arguably his finest ever performance in a United shirt in a 3-0 win which flattered the home team.
Neither of the infirm grounds are ones that I visited for many years, preferring the comfort of my living room to the intimidating atmosphere around these cauldrons of hatred, but as I’m in the middle of a daft run of attending games (Saturday will be my 77th consecutive competitive match) I’ll be there complete with baseball cap this week.
Much as I would like to see Smith attacking from the outset, I just can’t imagine his conservative nature won’t come out on top and I dread the thought of a 10 man behind the ball effort. We won convincingly at Ibrox the season before last with a weaker team than the one we have now with three strikers up front and the wide-open spaces of Parkhead (and that’s just between the ears of the home supporters) cry out for attacking wing play.
For that reason I’ll not be surprised to see a starting place for Jim Paterson, who seems to be the only player in the team at the moment capable of getting a decent cross into the opposition penalty box.
Gunlauggson will be the unknown quantity for many fans, but not for Martin O’Neill of course, who is familiar with our latest signing from his own days south of the border. I fancy Smith will play him up front with Thommo, keeping Lilley on the bench in reserve.
Team prediction (
My prediction for the result? Well in the “Beat the Manager” feature on the site, I think I registered 2-1 United in a mad rush of blood to the head. My worst fear is for another 4 or 5 goal defeat, especially after Celtic’s mauling of