If there was any hope to be taken from Dundee United’s surprise weekend defeat at Dumbarton, it’s that it might just have been it was a case of history repeating itself.
And if that’s an omen, the Tangerines will not be complaining come the end of this already-difficult Championship season.
Last time they were outside the top flight, back in 1995/96, their first visit to face the Sons ended in a similar reversal.
But by the end of that campaign they were looking forward to an immediate return to the highest level of the domestic game.
So Saturday’s reversal need not be a disaster, just as losing at the Sons’ long-time home Boghead in October 1995 wasn’t.
That day, with big-money signing Gary McSwegan making his debut, Billy Kirkwood’s side were humbled by a team inspired by that mercurial man of many clubs, Chic Charnley.
He pulled the strings from midfield and was involved as another seasoned lower-league campaigner, Martin Mooney, struck a shock winner with just nine minutes remaining of what had been an ugly game not too dissimilar to Saturday’s 90 minutes.
And like then, the final whistle that day not only meant the end of the afternoon’s proceedings but seemed to signal the end of the world for United.
A man who would have been involved that day but for injury and who was watching on last weekend, believes there is no doubt that need not be the case.
Dave Bowman, stalwart of the midfield from the mid-80s to mid-90s and now youth coach at Tannadice, is sure the current crop of players will recover.
Brutally frank as ever, though, he is telling them they must now wake up to what life for a Dundee United player in the Championship is all about.
“I was out because a few weeks earlier I’d fractured my cheekbone but I remember that result at Boghead,” he said.
“When we went there everyone thought a win for us was a formality.
“We were Dundee United and, although we’d been relegated, we had a very strong squad and over the summer had spent a bit of money on players.
“So when we lost that one it was a big surprise and I know it hurt the boys.
“But it was a wake-up call and at the end of the season we were back in the Premier League.
“That’s the way the boys now have to treat it and they will. I don’t think any of them were taking the Championship lightly and Saturday shows why they shouldn’t.”
From his experience of two decades ago Bowman knows it’s not just that there are a string of decent sides to be faced that can pose problems.
The fact Ray McKinnon’s men are running out wearing tangerine means, for most opposition, games against them will be the proverbial cup finals.
“For us, and Hibs to be fair, it’s a fact that we are the major scalps in the Championship,” he added.
“In was like that back in 1995/96. We’d won the cup just a year earlier and the things the club had achieved meant we were the team everyone wanted to beat.
“Everyone raised their game against us and it was something we had to learn to live with.
“When we did, we started winning — and winning well.
“I remember less than two months after that Dumbarton loss we hammered them 8-0 at Tannadice.
“Later that season we gave them six. It showed what we were capable of but made the earlier defeat more frustrating.
“But we’d learned our lesson and that’s what the boys have to do now.”
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