Dundee United fans are again dreaming of that long overdue return to the Premiership after their team booked a place in the play-off final against St Mirren that will kick off at Tannadice on Thursday night.
And if their 4-0 semi-final success over two legs against Inverness Caley Thistle was not quite as comfortable as the emphatic winning margin suggests, there is reason for optimism among Arabs that after two years of agonising post- season disappointment, this time their team can go all the way.
Up a goal from the first leg in Inverness three days earlier, for 45 minutes under the Friday night lights at Tannadice, that Tangerines lead looked precarious.
As was to be expected from a team chasing the tie, ICT came out of the blocks quickly and for most of the first period had the home team on the back foot.
Indeed, as the break approached the highlanders had done enough to feel they would be unlucky going into the interval still a goal behind.
As it turned out, however, their situation would be worse as first-half stoppage time saw referee Kevin Clancy point to the spot as a Peter Pawlett shot spun up of Brad McKay’s thigh and struck him on the arm.
Under the latest version of the rules, Clancy should have deemed it a case of ball to hand and therefore not a penalty so, understandably, his decision left visiting manager John Robertson furious.
So much so that he was sent to the stand at half-time after a confrontation with fourth official David Lowe.
Neither that nor the awarding of the penalty was anything to do with United and they had to be commended for the way they capitalised on what, for them, was a stroke of good fortune.
And, incidentally, given the bad breaks they’d endured in the play-offs of the previous campaigns, if luck was on their side this time, it was probably overdue.
Either way, when Nicky Clark stepped up to ram home the spot-kick, for all their travails of the first period, it was hard to see them not progressing.
Nerves settled by the goal, in the second half they moved up the gears and, against a side that was looking weary in their fifth game in 14 days, dominated.
It was all over bar the shouting as early as the 54th minute when Osman Sow grabbed his first United goal with a clever close-range finish and, after a string of missed chances, Pavol Safranko struck the third to send the season’s best crowd of over 8,000 home feeling extremely happy.
And if the first half was a touch worrying, overall there should be optimism over two legs against what is a decent Inverness outfit.
For a start, Safranko’s goal meant Robbie Neilson’s men had scored three goals in a game against Championship opposition for the first time since November.
Clean sheets in both legs also mean they’ve conceded just one goal in five games and that was in a meaningless final league game against Morton when the line-up was no better than half-strength.
On Thursday, of course, they will be facing a side that, for all their troubles near the bottom of the Premiership, has been playing at a higher level all season.
Over the course of the semi-final Inverness gave a good account of themselves, but what’s next will be a step up.
St Mirren will carry the disappointment of finishing second bottom spot in the top flight despite a 3-2 victory over the road at Dundee on Saturday.
It was, however, their sixth game unbeaten and the Buddies are much improved from the one that went down to United in the Scottish Cup back in February.
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