There was no Lawrence Shankland rescue mission for Dundee United this time as they were beaten 1-0 by Arbroath at Tannadice.
Back on September 21, Shankland pounced twice in the closing minutes to earn the Tangerines a 2-1 win and break the Lichties’ hearts.
This time, though, it was all about the Gayfield men in general and Craig Wighton in particular.
The former Dundee striker, who scored the “Doon Derby” winner as United suffered relegation, returned to haunt the Tangerines.
He flicked a shot through keeper Benjamin Siegrist’s legs after 26 minutes as United fell flat.
It was the first home defeat of the campaign and first loss in the league for Robbie Neilson’s men since October 19, when they were beaten by Queen of the South.
The Tangerines had made a couple of changes to the team that kicked off the William Hill Scottish Cup replay against Hibs at Easter Road on Tuesday night.
In from the start came Adrian Sporle and Osman Sow, with Ian Harkes names as a sub and Louis Appere not even on the bench.
The Lichties restored Wighton and Dale Hilson to their attack, with new signing James Craigen starting on the bench.
On five minutes, home midfielder Calum Butcher had the first attempt on goal – a low drive that was deflected wide.
A Liam Smith cross from the right was just nicked off Sow’s toes at the near post on 13 minutes and the resultant corner was wasted.
There was a major blow for Sow on 14 minutes when he went down inside the Arbroath box and quickly signalled to the United bench. It looked like he damaged his ankle and was carried off on a stretcher.
On 23 minutes, a nice move by the Tangerines saw Shankland play in Peter Pawlett but his shot was saved by keeper Derek Gaston at close range.
However, it was the Angus men who took the lead on 26 minutes.
It was a nice move that saw Colin Hamilton fire the ball towards United’s near post that reached Wighton and the ex-Dundee man steered the ball through goalie Siegrist’s legs with a clever flick of the boot from close range.
Siegrist had to look lively to catch a scooped shot from David Gold as the visitors finished the first half strongly.
United, watched by a crowd of 8,056, had been as flat as a pancake but had an early chance in the second half that fell for Shankland only for him to curl his shot beyond the far post.
Pawlett fired over a couple of minutes later then Shankland squared a great ball across the face of the visitors’ goal but there was no tangerine teammate to get on the end of it.
Tangerines’ sub Glass had to go off after suffering a head knock and was replaced by Harkes on 61 minutes.
It looked a certainty that United were about to go level when the ball deflected into Shankland’s path with only Gaston to beat on 70 minutes but the Arbroath goalie made a brilliant save to palm the shot away.
It should have been a goal but it wasn’t and the Lichties hung on to take all three points back to Gayfield.
