Football: United fight back

Aberdeen 1 Windass pen 35 Dundee United 1 Olafsson 69 Attendance : 13,645

Kjell Olafsson scored his 13th goal of the season to extend Dundee United's unbeaten run to 16 games after Aberdeen, who led through Dean Windass's 34th-minute penalty, squandered chances that could have put the match out of reach.

Roy Aitken's side were clearly fired up for the encounter, despite a recent record which contained just one win in their previous 15 games, and they held the initiative for long spells. United, for their part, showed what a class act they are becoming nowadays by mounting a stirring fightback during the last half hour which saw Olafsson a salvage a point.

The Scandinavian striker must have been a relieved man, as he had previously missed the best chance of the afternoon after making a hash of things when he was faced with an open goal early in the second half. A moment's hesitation allowed the Aberdeen defender Russell Anderson to make the goal- saving tackle.

There was more than a bit of good fortune about the leveller though as Olafsson seemed to have missed his chance only to see the ball bounce back into his path off the leg of Antoine Kombouare. Olafsson prodded the ball home to leave the visitors with a sense of justice especially as they hotly contested the penalty awarded to the home side in the first half. Scott Booth went down in a challenge with Mark Perry. Referee Jim Herald had no doubts about awarding the spot-kick and Windass cracked in goal 16 of his season.

It was fair reward for a fine first-half performance in which only the brilliance of Sieb Dykstra kept the Englishman at bay. The former Hull striker signalled his intentions on returning from a two-match suspension with a shot in the opening minute which was deflected inches wide. From the corner Windass fired in another fierce shot which Dykstra was happy to parry.