Stephen Halliday: The downfall of Dundee United

The manner in which United’s season has spectacularly unravelled in less than seven weeks since that propitious weekend has left their fans understandably shell-shocked.

Wednesday night’s crushing 4-0 defeat at Celtic Park in the replay of their Scottish Cup quarter-final continued a tailspin of despair for followers of the Tannadice club which effectively began in the late evening of 2 February. It was then, in the closing hours of the winter transfer window, that United chairman Stephen Thompson accepted a £2 million offer from Celtic for the services of midfielder Stuart Armstrong and winger Gary Mackay-Steven.

In terms of making your bed and having to lie in it, Thompson and United could hardly have experienced more uncomfortable consequences of that decision.

It was made for purely economic reasons and has maintained the improving financial health of a club which was losing around £3 million a year when Thompson’s father Eddie purchased it back in 2002. United are now free of bank debt and recorded a profit of £1.2m in their most recent set of accounts.

But it is teamsheets rather than balance sheets which concern football supporters. Many among those of a tangerine persuasion remain resentful of the sale of two of United’s most influential players at such a critical stage of what had the potential to be such a memorable season.

Back in September, they went two points clear at the top of the Premiership after losing just one of their first eight games. Tentative talk of a potential title challenge continued when their 2-1 defeat of Celtic at Tannadice towards the end of December left them just four points behind the defending champions.

That plug was pulled on that feelgood factor, however, when Thompson concluded that Celtic’s bid for Armstrong and Mackay-Steven was too good to refuse. United have won only one of their eight matches since and that was a Scottish Cup tie at League 1 part-timers Stranraer.

“There is no doubt from a football point of view it was not the right thing to do,” conceded Thompson earlier this month.

“I admit that and it’s been hard for a lot of people to accept. But we have financial obligations to do the right thing for the club. Once all the transfer fees are in we will be down to about £1.3m of debt, so the club is going in the right direction.