The 2005–06 season was the 97th year of

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

played by

Dundee United Dundee United Football Club is a Scotland, Scottish professional association football, football club based in the city of Dundee. Formed in 1909, originally as Dundee Hibernian, the club changed to the present name in 1923. United are nickname ...

, and covers the period from 1 July 2005 to 30 June 2006. United finished in ninth place for the second consecutive season and meant they had only finished in the top six once in the six seasons since the split was introduced. United finished the 2005/06 SPL season in 9th place with 33 points, narrowly beating

Falkirk Falkirk ( ; ; ) is a town in the Central Lowlands of Scotland, historically within the county of Stirlingshire. It lies in the Forth Valley, northwest of Edinburgh and northeast of Glasgow. Falkirk had a resident population of 32,422 at the ...

(10th) and

Dunfermline Athletic Dunfermline Athletic Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the city of Dunfermline, Fife. Founded in 1885, the club currently compete in the after winning the 2022–23 Scottish League One title. Dunfermline play at ...

(11th) on

goal difference Goal difference, goal differential or points difference is a form of tiebreaker used to rank sport teams which finish on equal points in a league competition. Either "goal difference" or "points difference" is used, depending on whether matches ar ...

. United exited all three cup competitions at the first stage. Between April and early-May, United lost six consecutive games, including losses to the three clubs which finished below them in the league. The much-anticipated

UEFA Cup The asterisk ( ), from Late Latin , from Ancient Greek , , "little star", is a Typography, typographical symbol. It is so called because it resembles a conventional image of a star (heraldry), heraldic star. Computer scientists and Mathematici ...

campaign ended in disappointment with an away-goals defeat to Finnish side MyPa (after United surrendered a two-goal lead), and a

Scottish League Cup The Scottish League Cup, also known as the Premier Sports Cup for sponsorship reasons, is a football competition open to all Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL) clubs. First held in 1946–47, it is the oldest national League cup in ...

defeat to Inverness CT followed, although an incredible 5–4 away win over

Motherwell Motherwell (, ) is a List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, town and former burgh in North Lanarkshire, Scotland, United Kingdom, south east of Glasgow. It has a population of around 32,120. Shires of Scotland, Historically in the p ...

brought some early-season cheer. United also exited the

Scottish Cup The Scottish Football Association Challenge Cup,Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

after again throwing away a two-goal lead. Little league success followed, and the Terrors finished ninth on goal difference, thanks to a late

Collin Samuel Collin Andrew Samuel CM (born 27 August 1981) is a Trinidad and Tobago former professional footballer who played as a winger or striker. He represented Trinidad and Tobago at senior international level and played in the 2006 World Cup. He p ...

equaliser against Motherwell on the season's final day. In mid-January,

Gordon Chisholm Gordon William Chisholm (born 8 April 1960 in Glasgow) is a Scottish professional football former player and manager. Chisholm played as a central defender for Sunderland, Hibernian, Dundee and Partick Thistle. After retiring as a player, Chis ...

was sacked, with United favourite

Craig Brewster Craig James Brown Brewster (born 13 December 1966) is a Scottish former professional footballer, turned coach. He made his name in a long playing career as a striker for numerous clubs in Scotland, particularly Forfar Athletic, Raith Rovers, D ...

leaving Inverness CT to take over. Brewster would go on to win just one league game all season and leave United before 2006 was out.

Season review

Pre-season preparations went well, with United winning the inaugural City of Discovery Cup. The league season started disappointingly, however, with the surprise

exit in August to MyPa a notable downpoint. After drawing the away leg 0–0, United threw away a 2–0 first-half home lead, and went out on away goals. An incredible 5–4 win at

– in which United were two goals behind on three occasions – was the only high point in a disappointing month. United also lost to Celtic and Hearts in August. United lost at Hibernian and exited the

in September, going out to

Inverness Caledonian Thistle Inverness Caledonian Thistle Football Club, commonly known as Caley Thistle, Inverness CT or just Inverness, is a professional football club based in Inverness, Scotland. The team competes in , the third tier of the Scottish Professional Footba ...

in the second round. Prior to the cup exit, a 2–0 win over

Livingston Livingston or Livingstonemay refer to: Businesses * Livingston Energy Flight, an Italian airline (2003–2010) * Livingston Compagnia Aerea, an Italian airline (2011–2014), also known as Livingston Airline * Livingston International, a North Am ...

had brought the first home win. Immediately after going out of the cup, United lost at

Dunfermline Dunfermline (; , ) is a city, parish, and former royal burgh in Fife, Scotland, from the northern shore of the Firth of Forth. Dunfermline was the de facto capital of the Kingdom of Scotland between the 11th and 15th centuries. The earliest ...

, to close out September in disappointing fashion. In October, United a three-game unbeaten run, indicating a small improvement. The spell – which included a televised draw against

Rangers A ranger is typically someone in a law enforcement or military/paramilitary role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called "ranging" or "scouting". The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with prot ...

and a win at

– was unfortunately followed by three successive defeats, which saw nine goals conceded. United then avoided defeat in four of the next five matches. Boxing Day saw a last-minute defeat at

Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...

and United also lost heavily at Ibrox to Rangers. Incredibly, United exited the third cup tournament immediately, throwing away a two-goal home lead to lose 3–2 to

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

. In the game in which on-loan Charles Mulgrew debuted, David Fernandez scored twice in the first half, only for ex-Tangerine

Stevie Crawford Stephen Crawford (born 9 January 1974) is a Scottish professional football coach and former player. He was most recently the interim manager of Lowland League club Cowdenbeath. Crawford started his career with Raith Rovers, with whom he won ...

to equalise. It proved to be the final straw and manager

left, with immediate rumours naming

as Eddie Thompson's man of choice for the hot seat. Brewster was appointed shortly after. Caretaker-manager

Billy Dodds William Dodds (born 5 February 1969) is a Scottish football coach and former player. He is part of assistant head coach at his former club Rangers. His playing career started with English club Chelsea and the rest of his career was spent i ...

took charge for his only game as United recovered to beat Falkirk 2–1, with newly appointed Brewster watching from the stands. It would also be Mark Wilson's final match, as he moved to Celtic for £500,000 shortly afterwards. Brewster made his second United debut against

but lasted under half an hour due to injury, which ended his playing season. He guided United to three draws in his first three matches but had to wait until his eighth match to secure his first win, at the expense of Livingston. During this time, on-loan Charlie Mulgrew won the Young Player of the Month award for February. United lost six of the final eight games to end a thoroughly disappointing season, which brought just one league win for the new manager.

Match results

Dundee United played a total of 42 competitive matches during the 2005–06 season, as well as four pre-season

friendlies An exhibition game (also known as a friendly, scrimmage, demonstration, training match, pre-season game, warmup match, or preparation match, depending at least in part on the sport) is a sporting event whose prize money and impact on the playe ...

, making a total of nearly fifty games played. The team finished ninth in the

Scottish Premier League The Scottish Premier League (SPL) was the Scottish football league system, top-level league competition for professional Association football, football clubs in Scotland. The league was founded in 1998, when it broke away from the Scottish Foo ...

. In the cup competitions, United were knocked out of the

, despite being two goals ahead at half time. The club also exited early in the League Cup, losing 2–0 away to Inverness CT in the second round. United fell to an early exit in the

after losing on away goals to Finnish team MyPa, completing an immediate exit in all three cup competitions.

Legend

All results are written with Dundee United's score first.

Scottish Premier League

Scottish Cup

Scottish League Cup

UEFA Cup

Player details

During the 2005–06 season, United used 27 different players, with a further seven named as unused substitutes. The table below shows the number of appearances and goals scored by each player.

Goalscorers

United had 15 players score with the team scoring 45 goals in total. The top goalscorers were

Lee Miller Elizabeth "Lee" Miller, Lady Penrose (April 23, 1907 – July 21, 1977), was an American photographer and photojournalist. Miller was a fashion model in New York City in the 1920s before going to Paris, becoming a fashion and fine-art pho ...

and

, who finished the season with eight goals each.

Discipline

During the 2005–06 season, two United players were sent off, and 18 players received at least one yellow card. In total, the team received two dismissals and 64 cautions.

Team statistics

League table

Transfers

In

The club signed six players during the season, as well as loaning one for the latter part. Only one player –

– was signed for a fee (£225k).

Loans in

Out

Six players left the club during the season with only one transfer involving a fee: Mark Wilson's £500k move to

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...

. The others were released before the end of their contracts.

Playing kit

The home strip remained unchanged from the previous season but the away kit was changed to a new white and black outfit, separated diagonally. As mentioned at the end of the previous season, the limited edition third kit would be used for the European campaign. The jerseys were sponsored by Morning, Noon and Night for the third and final season. Originally sponsored for the 2003–04 season, the firm – operating under the banner of

Scotmid The Scottish Midland Co-operative Society (trading as Scotmid), is an independent retail consumers' co-operative based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally founded as St. Cuthbert's Co-operative Society in 1859, it merged with Dalziel Co-oper ...

since August 2004 – sponsored the club for a final time. The sponsor logo was again displayed as a simple font across the chest, with white logo for the home and third tops and orange logo on the change strip.

Awards

* Charles Mulgrew ** Scottish Premier League Young Player of the Month: 1 :: February 2006

References

External links

Official site: 2005/06 Results
* Soccerbase
Results

Squad stats

Transfers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dundee United F.C. Season 2005-06 2005-06 Scottish football clubs 2005–06 season