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After 575 mintues the run of clean sheets ended, Stephen McPhee equalising for Dundee in the derby. It didn't stop there though as the same man took advantage of a red card for Trond Erik Bertelson to win the game for the visitors. In Bertelson's absence United shipped 4 to Rangers and two to St Mirren in the league cup. There was no response at Ibrox, but Lee Miller scored six times at Love Street to ensure progression, before grabbing the only goal of a tense game at East End Park to renew the league campaign in a positive way.

Drawing 1-1 at home to Galatasaray may not have been outstanding, but Lee Miller's goal eight minutes into the second leg at Ali Sami Yen put the tie right back in the balance. The score remained 1-0 past the hour mark and a tense finish seemed all set up. With twenty minutes to go though, Miller struck again and the hosts needed three. United were in control now, and the revival never seemed on. A 3-1 aggregate win was achieved and Brown could turn his thoughts to the group stages where United would test themselves against Stuttgart, AZ, Atletic Bilbao and Torpedo Moscow. Qualification seemed a tangible goal.

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Mark Wilson and Lee Miller took advantage of day-to-day contact with Brown to earn callups for the games with Luxembourg and Northern Ireland. Miller was the main beneficiary, being elevated from non-involvement to the starting lineup at the expense of Derek Riordan. Mark Wilson also got the nod, but simply due to a suspension for John Kennedy which forced Brown to slide McNamara to centre back.

Luxembourg looked up for the game from the off, but Lee Miller's eighteenth minute penalty seemed to deflate them and Scotland pressed on looking to kill the game. Barry Ferguson duly obliged with a fine strike half an hour in and Shaun Maloney made it three a couple of minutes later.

A triple change at the break saw Charlie Adam, Craig Beattie and Derek Riordan replace Darren Fletcher, Kenny Miller and Maloney, but the team picked up where it left off, Lee Miller scoring his second almost immediately before going agonisingly close to a debut hat-trick on more than one occasion before clinching it with seven minutes to play.

Miller thought he had added a fourth with the last kick of the ball, but the referee had other ideas and the game ended with a fine 5-0 win for Brown's side.

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Ivan Sproule's seventh minute opener meant this fixture would be a real gut check for Scotland, but Kenny Miller responded within four minutes to return the game to stage one, and a red card for Northern Ireland's Chris Anderson with over an hour to play seemed to swing the tie in Brown's side's favour.

Still it was only 1-1 at the interval and it looked set to end that way until a lucky break allowed Shaun Maloney a clear view of goal and the little striker made it 2-1. Derek Riordan hit the bar late on as Scotland looked to seal the win, but it was to be a fine Barry Ferguson strike that ended the contest.

Scotland now sat on twenty points with a game to play. Ahead of them Germany were uncatchable on 24, Russia and Spain had 23 and both a superior goal difference. It would take an absolute miracle for Scotland to qualify and there could be no bones about it.

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Unusually it was the withrawal of a lame Lee Miller that led to a scoring burst as Torpedo Moscow came to Tannadice. Twenty minutes remained when Brown sent on Falcao, but the little Colombian still had time to fire a dramtic hat-trick, with Mark Wilson netting a penalty in between to seal an unlikely 4-0 victory.

The next big test would come at home to Celtic in a game that Brown would come to rate as his most disappointing so far. Goals from Cordoba, Falcao and Miller had reversed a 1-0 defecit. Miller's strike made it 3-1 in the 89th minute, but two injury time goals grabbed Celtic a point and there was no escaping the bottle job his side had performed.

With Rangers having conceded just two league goals through twelve fixtures and only consecutive 1-1 draws with Aberdeen and Dunfermline at the end of August blotting their copybook it seemed Joél Garçon would outduel Brown in their first season of direct competition. Even the loss of both centre backs seemed to have little effect on the Ibrox juggernaut, though Ajax did take advantage with a 3-0 win in the Champions League.

In the end United lost 1-0 at Bilbao, but it was a far from lucky performance and Miller and Falcao were denied by great stops. It wasn't outstanding, but it was so nearly a great away draw. Thoughts turned to AZ and to Stuttgart with probably four points needed to guarantee progress.

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Spain needed a win to hold on to any hopes of qualification, but they never threatened Iain Turner in the Scotland goal and the game ended 0-0. Wins for Germany and Russia saw them through to the finals, but for Scotland it was a case of pride salvaged after a poor start to the campaign. Brown held on to his job without much complaint from the support and thoughts turned to the World Cup.

<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre"> P W D L F A Pts1. Germany 12 9 0 3 19 7 272. Russia 12 8 2 2 18 7 263. Spain 12 7 3 2 25 7 244. Scotland 12 6 3 3 19 11 215. N.Ireland 12 3 2 7 8 17 116. Latvia 12 3 2 7 13 18 117. Luxembourg 12 0 0 12 3 38 0</pre>

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For fans of "what if", wins at home to Northern Ireland and Russia would have put Scotland in a tie for second with the Russians on 25 points. Presuming nothing else changed.

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A friendly against an on-form England side wasn't the nicest way to end the itnernational year, and Jermain Defoe's opening goal made it less so. Still, the fans were into it so at least someone felt the match was worthwhile.

In the end it was a dull encounter that ended 1-0, but the songs continued long into the night, so that was nice.

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Despite losing 3-2 at home to Stuttgart (thanks to a controversial decision to disallow David Fernandez' last minute leveller due to a 'foul') United needed only a draw in Holland to qualify at the expense of AZ and Torpedo Moscow.

Internationally the World Cup draw paired Scotland with England, Romania, Serbia & Montenegro, Kazakhstan and Luxembourg - an eminently more forgiving draw than the last one, and a group Brown would be looking to win.

Sadly United lost 1-0 in Holland and slipped out of the top three in the group. One win and three defeats, even if they were all by just a single goal, just doesn't cut it in the big leagues. Better luck next year.

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An embarrassing semi-final defeat to Morton ended Brown's League Cup run one stage short of a Final encounter with Garçon, but there were to be no bragging rights as the Luxembourger's Rangers side were eliminated from the Scottish Cup after taking Inverness too lightly not once, but twice, losing in a replay up north in the Third Round.

With Rangers managing just one home win - against Arsenal of all sides - and crashing out of the Champions League with only 8 points, then losing 2-1 on aggregate to Marseille in the UEFA Cup it wasn't such a good year for Scottish sides in Europe, with the exception of Celtic who progressed to the Champions League knockout stages and proceeded to eliminate Villarreal.

Lee Miller had fired 30 goals before the New Year arrived, but injuries curtailed his start to 2008 and he missed a hatful of chances in his comeback as Kilmanock travelled to Tannadice for a Scottish Cup Quarter Final tie. With Seong Hyun struggling to make an impact and former Parma and Dortmund man Amoroso injured it was left to Dany N'Guessan to make up for Miller's poor finishing with an equaliser before David Fernandez and former Birmingham man David Dunn made it 3-1.

Sitting third in the table and having reached a second semi final in his first season at the club, Brown could have rested on his laurels, but not this guy. Every interview, every comment pointed towards progress. Having taken a side slated for relegation to unknown highs the plan now was to trim the fat, streamline the playing staff and make the club self-sustaining and successful.

Brown was not a man to rejoice in small triumphs.

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Correction: I got ahead of myself there - Celtic were actually horsed by Villarreal in the second leg and were eliminated.