Football / Scottish Cup Semi-Final: Welsh finds way

Aberdeen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

Dundee United. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

DUNDEE UNITED rose up from the ashes at Hampden Park on Saturday. Just when it looked as if Duncan Shearer had put Aberdeen into the final of the Tennents Scottish Cup with a seventh-minute goal, the strapping figure of Brian Welsh, United's centre- back, headed his side into a replay tomorrow night, back at the home of Scottish football.

It was as dramatic a finish to a Cup semi-final as you were likely to see. The start was not bad, either. Only two minutes had gone when Andy McLaren drifted into Aberdeen's penalty area and flung his head at a Maurice Malpas cross. Somehow, though, John Burridge, that most dedicated of journeymen, kept it out with an outstanding low, diving save.

It was a chance missed and within five minutes United were paying for it. Lee Richardson, the former Blackburn Rovers player, floated a pass out to Stewart McKimmie, galloping down the right wing. The Scottish international struck it first time into the path of Shearer, and his volley squirmed under the body of Guido Van de Kamp in United's goal.

From there on, the game went downhill fast as a spectacle. By the time United's goal finally arrived, they had run out of steam, frustrated by the weight of numbers in Aberdeen's defence. Only Welsh had the inclination to make an effort to get on the end of Malpas' 88th-minute cross. A thumping header into the corner of the net was just reward for his run, and gave this semi-final a fitting conclusion.

Goals: Shearer (7) 1-0; Welsh (88) 1-1.

Aberdeen (4-4-2): Burridge; McKimmie, Irvine, Smith, Robertson (Miller, 69); Grant, Richardson, Kane, McKinnon; Jess (Paatelainen, 84), Shearer.

Dundee United (3-4-3): Van de Kamp; Cleland, Petric, Welsh; McInally, Bowman, McKinlay, Malpas; McLaren, Brewster, Nixon (Dailly, 63). Substitute not used: Bollan.

Referee: J McCluskey (Stewarton).