# 1989–90 Dundee United F.C. season

The 1989–90 season was the 81st year of football played by Dundee United, and covers the period from 1 July 1989 to 30 June 1990. United finished in fourth place, securing European football on the final day of the season.

## Match results

Dundee United played a total of 47 competitive matches during the 1989–90 season. The team finished fourth in the Scottish Premier Division.
In the cup competitions, United lost in the semi-final of the Tennent's Scottish Cup to eventual winners Aberdeen and lost in the Skol Cup third round to Hamilton.

### Legend

| Win | Draw | Loss |
All results are written with Dundee United's score first.

### Premier Division

| Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 12 August 1989 | Motherwell | H | 1–1 | 8,596 | French |
| 19 August 1989 | Dundee | A | 3–4 | 13,616 | Malpas, M O'Neill, Paatelainen |
| 26 August 1989 | Dunfermline | H | 2–1 | 9,158 | Van der Hoorn, M O'Neill |
| 9 September 1989 | Hibernian | A | 0–2 | 7,000 | |
| 16 September 1989 | Celtic | H | 2–2 | 16,624 | Van der Hoorn, French |
| 23 September 1989 | Hearts | A | 1–1 | 14,008 | McInally |
| 30 September 1989 | St Mirren | H | 0–0 | 6,643 | |
| 4 October 1989 | Aberdeen | H | 2–0 | 11,879 | McInally, Malpas |
| 14 October 1989 | Rangers | A | 1–2 | 36,062 | M O'Neill |
| 21 October 1989 | Motherwell | A | 2–3 | 8,100 | M O'Neill (2) |
| 28 October 1989 | Dundee | H | 0–0 | 11,529 | |
| 4 November 1989 | Dunfermline | A | 1–1 | 10,804 | Paatelainen |
| 8 November 1989 | Hibernian | H | 1–0 | 8,247 | Jackson |
| 18 November 1989 | Celtic | A | 1–0 | 35,350 | Gallacher |
| 25 November 1989 | Hearts | H | 2–1 | 12,201 | Bowman, Paatelainen |
| 9 December 1989 | Aberdeen | A | 0–2 | 15,500 | McInally, Malpas |
| 13 December 1989 | St Mirren | A | 0–1 | 2,800 | |
| 16 December 1989 | Rangers | H | 1–1 | 15,947 | Paatelainen |
| 23 December 1989 | Motherwell | H | 1–1 | 6,169 | Paatelainen |
| 30 December 1989 | Dundee | A | 1–1 | 12,803 | Jackson |
| 3 January 1990 | Dunfermline | H | 1–0 | 11,148 | Jackson |
| 6 January 1990 | Hibernian | A | 0–0 | 6,500 | |
| 13 January 1990 | Celtic | H | 2–0 | 16,635 | Connolly (2) |
| 27 January 1990 | Hearts | A | 2–3 | 13,083 | Connolly, Paatelainen |
| 3 February 1990 | Rangers | A | 1–3 | 39,058 | Clark |
| 10 February 1990 | Aberdeen | H | 1–1 | 10,533 | McInally |
| 17 February 1990 | St Mirren | H | 2–0 | 5,957 | Jackson, Connolly |
| 3 March 1990 | Celtic | A | 0–3 | 23,541 | |
| 10 March 1990 | Motherwell | A | 1–0 | 4,697 | Jackson |
| 24 March 1990 | Dundee | H | 1–2 | 11,918 | Connolly |
| 31 March 1990 | Dunfermline | A | 1–0 | 6,945 | Jackson |
| 7 April 1990 | Hibernian | H | 1–0 | 6,633 | Paatelainen |
| 18 April 1990 | Aberdeen | A | 0–1 | 10,000 | |
| 21 April 1990 | Rangers | H | 0–1 | 15,996 | |
| 28 April 1990 | Hearts | H | 1–1 | 7,679 | Jackson |
| 5 May 1990 | St Mirren | A | 0–0 | 4,312 | |

### Tennent's Scottish Cup

| Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 20 January 1990 | Dundee | A | 0–0 | 14,176 | |
| 23 January 1990 | Dundee | H | 1–0 | 16,228 | Clark |
| 24 February 1990 | Queen of the South | H | 2–1 | 5,948 | Connolly, Paatelainen |
| 17 March 1990 | Hibernian | H | 1–0 | 13,874 | Jackson |
| 14 April 1990 | Aberdeen | N | 0–4 | 16,581 | |

### Skol Cup

| Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 16 August 1989 | Partick Thistle | H | 1–0 | 7,043 | M O'Neill |
| 23 August 1989 | Hamilton | A | 1–2 | 2,600 | Hinds |

### UEFA Cup

| Date | Opponent | Venue | Result | Attendance | Scorers |
| 13 September 1989 | Glentoran | A | 3–1 | 8,000 | Cleland, McInally, Hinds |
| 27 September 1989 | Glentoran | H | 2–0 | 9,340 | Clark, Gallacher |
| 17 October 1989 | Royal Antwerp | A | 0–4 | 10,000 | |
| 31 October 1989 | Royal Antwerp | H | 3–2 | 8,994 | M O'Neill, Paatelainen, Clark |

## Player details

During the 1989–90 season, United used 25 different players comprising five nationalities. Maurice Malpas was the only player to play in every match. The table below shows the number of appearances and goals scored by each player.
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Total | Total | Scottish Premier Division | Scottish Premier Division | Tennent's Scottish Cup | Tennent's Scottish Cup | Skol Cup | Skol Cup | UEFA Cup | UEFA Cup |
| No. | Pos | Nat | Player | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals | Apps | Goals |
| | GK | SCO | Alan Main | 33 | 0 | 27 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| | GK | SCO | Billy Thomson | 11 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| | GK | SCO | Scott Thomson | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | DF | SCO | John Clark | 37 | 4 | 28 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| | DF | SCO | Alex Cleland | 17 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 |
| | DF | SCO | Paul Hegarty | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| | DF | NED | Fred van der Hoorn | 42 | 2 | 31 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| | DF | YUG | Miodrag Krivokapić | 34 | 0 | 26 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| | DF | SCO | Maurice Malpas | 40 | 2 | 30 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| | DF | SCO | Gary McGinnis | 6 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | DF | SCO | Dave Narey | 41 | 0 | 31 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| | DF | SCO | Brian Welsh | 5 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | Charlie Adam | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | Dave Bowman | 34 | 1 | 24 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | Alan Irvine | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | Jim McInally | 46 | 4 | 35 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| | MF | SCO | Billy McKinlay | 18 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | Ray McKinnon | 11 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | Joe McLeod | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | SCO | John O'Neil | 10 | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | MF | NIR | Michael O'Neill | 25 | 7 | 18 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 1 |
| | MF | SCO | Allan Preston | 11 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| | FW | SCO | Paddy Connolly | 19 | 6 | 15 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| | FW | SCO | Hamish French | 13 | 2 | 11 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| | FW | SCO | Kevin Gallacher | 24 | 2 | 17 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 4 | 1 |
| | FW | BRB | Peter Hinds | 18 | 3 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| | FW | SCO | Darren Jackson | 32 | 8 | 25 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| | FW | FIN | Mixu Paatelainen | 41 | 9 | 31 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 1 |

## Team statistics
### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification or relegation |
| 2 | Aberdeen | 36 | 17 | 10 | 9 | 56 | 33 | +23 | 44 | Qualification for the Cup Winners' Cup first round |
| 3 | Heart of Midlothian | 36 | 16 | 12 | 8 | 54 | 35 | +19 | 44 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 4 | Dundee United | 36 | 11 | 13 | 12 | 36 | 39 | −3 | 35 | Qualification for the UEFA Cup first round |
| 5 | Celtic | 36 | 10 | 14 | 12 | 37 | 37 | 0 | 34 | |
| 6 | Motherwell | 36 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 43 | 47 | −4 | 34 | |

## Playing kit

| Home colours | Away colours |
The jerseys were sponsored by Belhaven for a third season.