Premier League Champions 1982/83

Back Row: David Narey, Iain Phillip, John Gardiner, Hamish McAlpine, Richard Gough, Ian Gibson

Middle Row: Eammon Bannon, Davie Dodds, Walter Smith, Derek Stark, John Holt, Jim McLean(Manager)

Front Row: Graeme Payne, Maurice Malpas, Ralph Milne, Paul Hegarty, Paul Sturrock, Billy Kirkwood, Ian Britton

Full Season results, standings & appearences Click Here

Dens Park, Saturday 14 May 1983 The time crept agonisingly on, second by second Finally, at 4 42 pm the ground exploded into an almighty roar, signalling the coronation of Dundee United as Scotland's No 1 football club 29,106 people had packed the ground that afternoon to witness ninety nerve-jangling minutes, characterised more by tension and untidiness than enthralling or incisive football However, as referee George Smith sounded the final whistle those sections of Dens Park coloured tangerine and black erupted - shouting, cheering, leaping into the air, hugging their neighbours and, in some cases breaking into tears, for around 20,000 United supporters had just witnessed their heroes achieve the unthinkable A basic squad of only twelve players assembled at relatively little cost, had claimed, in the name of Dundee United, the Scottish League championship for the first time m the club's 74-year history Nor was it a fluke, in becoming champions United equalled the highest points total for the Premier division and established a new record by scoring 90 goals It was a fantastic achievement for a club of Dundee Umted's resources, and one which not even the club's most fervent supporters could have seriously predicted eight months previously at the outset of the season Over a period of almost twelve years since assuming the manager's chair, Jim McLean had assiduously built, not one team, but three for the club Initially he had purchased, at minimal cost, players of experience to lift United above the position which they had begun to occupy with predictable regularity as one of the also-rans of Scottish football.

His first side, which combined that experience with one or two promising youngsters, was, by 1974, good enough to take the club to its first-ever Scottish Cup final Far from being downhearted by what was in reality a fairly convincing defeat by Celtic, McLean marked it down as progress and then set about building mark two of his side This he did by progressively replacing most of the old heads with a mixture of young home-grown talent (the first fruits of his youth policy) and some shrewd purchases at a level which the club could afford These players he then set about blending into an effective unit which picked up valuable experience in various corners of Europe on the way to surmounting the important psychological barrier of lifting a trophy for the first time This McLean's "second team" did in December 1979, beating Aberdeen in a replay to take the Scottish League Cup By now, the managers comprehensive scouting and coaching system was paying handsome dividends in the form of a conveyor-belt of gifted youngsters (the majority ot them local) and, fired by a second League Cup success, he was now able to gradually integrate them, thereby forming mark three. In August 1983, this side was ready to mount an assault on Scottish football's highest peak Such a description ot the Scottish League championship is entirely appropriate, the vast majority ot Scottish clubs could as easily carry the championship trophy to their boardroom as scale Mount Everest in carpet slippers In Scotland, provincial clubs just don't do things like winning the League championship - at least only on the rarest of occasions It is most unfortunate, but nevertheless a tact, that the Old Firm ot Celtic and Rangers let the championship slip from their collective grasp less often than a mother with her first-born Since its inception in 1890, the championship trophy had rested at either Ibrox or Parkhead for 70 out ot 85 seasons Between the two world wars, only Mother-well (in 1932) broke the monopoly ot green and blue, and as season 1982/83 dawned, only Aberdeen (in 1980) had -interfered" since 1965. Continue