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As this tale of Brown's fortunes continues inexorably towards a second page, the man himself was gearing up for a Scottish Cup Semi Final against a Celtic side he'd failed to beat all year long, a Celtic side on a 16 game winning streak in the league up until a dramatic recent 4-1 loss at home to Raners and a Celtic side who had whittled Joél Garçon's Rangers side's ten point lead down to one before that game.

There was much of concern. Lee Miller hadn't scored for about a month, league form had been poor and Amoroso kept getting hurt. A top six place that seemed guaranteed about six weeks previously had all but evaporated and doom and gloom was the prevailing mood.

Morton put up a valiant fight against Rangers in the League Cup final, but Bosko Balaban's 65 yard effort into an open goal as time ran out sealed a 2-0 win for the SPL leaders. In truth the Greenock side were never in the match, but the close scoreline kept it interesting until the finish.

After the semi, United would need to beat St Mirren and hope city rivals Dundee failed to match that against Motherwell. For now though attention was on Celtic alone.

Craig Beattie opened the scoring with 25 minutes of play remaining. Amoroso and David Dunn missed great chances to level, but Steven Whittaker sealed the game for the Glasgow side with a fine second goal. Celtic would face Hamilton Accies in the Final.

Brown signed a new 2-year deal in the week following the semi, having been initially offered a 3 year contract. He insisted upon improved training facilities and was appeased.

St. Mirren were now the sole focus and gameplanning was hampered by Lee Milelr's flu. It was always going to be tough for him to be fit enoguh to play and in the end he failed a late fitness test and would not feature.

Trailing 2-0 after half an hour it looked bleak for United. Amoroso though netted before the interval and centre back Brian Easton levelled from the spot with half an hour to play. From there United would have hoped to press on for the winner, but with time running out Brown was forced to gamble, sending on a fourth striker. There was to be no Latviaesque heroics however, time ticking away and with it a top six finish.

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Typically United ended their 10-game winless league run by defeating St Mirren. Goalkeeping was identified as the issue and a return to early incumbant Derek Stillie produced the clean sheet and three points. Stillie is poised to move to Manchester City in the summer, but Brown knows he needs him to salvage respectability from the remainder of the campaign.

After drawing 1-1 with Kilmarnock goals from Falcao and Mark Kerr for Hibs condemned United to another defeat and put Brown's wisdom for selling the pair in question.

Garçon's Rangers clinched the title with a 0-0 draw in the Old Firm game at Ibrox and the party began in Glasgow. For United it was a dreary end to a season that started out so promisingly. There's always next year...

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<pre class="ip-ubbcode-code-pre">| Pos | Inf | Team | | Pld | Won | Drn | Lst | For | Ag | G.D. | Pts | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 1st | C | Rangers | | 38 | 29 | 7 | 2 | 95 | 24 | +71 | 94 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 2nd | | Celtic | | 38 | 27 | 7 | 4 | 78 | 25 | +53 | 88 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 3rd | | Hearts | | 38 | 17 | 5 | 16 | 55 | 48 | +7 | 56 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 4th | | Aberdeen | | 38 | 15 | 9 | 14 | 75 | 75 | 0 | 54 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 5th | | Motherwell | | 38 | 14 | 11 | 13 | 53 | 42 | +11 | 53 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 6th | | Dundee | | 38 | 14 | 7 | 17 | 43 | 62 | -19 | 49 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 7th | | Dunfermline Ath | | 38 | 16 | 7 | 15 | 49 | 63 | -14 | 55 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 8th | *** | Dundee Utd | | 38 | 13 | 10 | 15 | 54 | 58 | -4 | 49 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 9th | | Hibernian | | 38 | 11 | 13 | 14 | 49 | 50 | -1 | 46 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 10th | | Kilmarnock | | 38 | 8 | 9 | 21 | 39 | 72 | -33 | 33 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 11th | | Inverness CT | | 38 | 8 | 6 | 24 | 35 | 70 | -35 | 30 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 12th | R | St. Mirren | | 38 | 7 | 7 | 24 | 31 | 67 | -36 | 28 | | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|</pre>

As the table showed, it hadn't been a great year in the end for United, despite two semi finals. Brown though had learned his lesson and would never again f*ck with a winning side. Thoughts of rebuilding were now paramount and Andy Brown sat down to compile his off-season dossier.