Saturday’s Scottish Gas Scottish Cup tie at Tannadice sees a return to Dundee for a trio of current Spartans players including Callum Booth.
Callum Booth joined Dundee United in August 2018 and played a total of 33 games and scored twice during his one year stay at Tannadice that saw them finish second in the Championship.
“I must say that Dundee United are a great club in regards to the stadium facilities and the training ground at St Andrews which was so good and a massive plus as a player.
“Csaba Laszlo signed me then Robbie Neilson came in as Gaffer. We made the Play-Off final against St Mirren which unfortunately for me I missed a penalty – in fact, all four of us did!
“Unfortunately for myself, the two year deal I’d originally signed didn’t fully work out and I left to join Bury. That move sadly ended after pre-season as they were to go into administration and subsequently drop out of the EFL. I think it was the first team in about 30 years to go bust so I was left unemployed for a bit before joining St Johnstone and everything worked out okay there for me.”
Booth’s relationship with the Scottish Cup is a special one of course, picking up a winner’s medal in 2021 after his build up play challenges set up the only goal of the game against Hibernian.
Whilst the defender may not be ready yet for inclusion in the match day squad as he continues his comeback from injury, Booth is confident that his team-mates will not just be heading to Tannadice to make up the numbers.
“There’s always a chance in a one-off game and the boys can definitely take big hope from a couple years ago beating them in the Viaplay Cup. That was a massive result and whilst it was just before I came to the club, I remember seeing it and thinking that was a really big result.
“And then, even since I’ve been here, we’ve had some really big performances. There’s been five or six really big games in the Cup and even Hearts needed a last-minute goal to edge us out. We’ve held our own against teams sitting in leagues above us, perhaps with the exception of Aberdeen who were flying at the time.
“I think the way that they’re playing just now as well, United are probably not in the best form of their season and they played again on Wednesday night too.
“The pitch is probably not going to be at its best, which is going to be a bit of a leveller so yeah, I think probably the first 10-15 minutes are going to really important, just stay in the game and slow things down. The boys are proven over the last three or four years that they can get big results and hopefully that can continue and we can find ourselves in the draw come full time.”
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