It may make him a masochist but Ryan Dow admits he has watched footage of the moment he came within a whisker of scoring in the Scottish Cup final.
The May 17 decider against St Johnstone at Celtic Park was goalless after half-an-hour when, following a sweeping passing move from the Tangerines, Dow ghosted on to a cross from the left by Andy Robertson.
The deftest of flicks with the outside of his right boot sent the ball flying on to the inside of the far post.
The angle looked likely to take it into the net but instead it flew back in front of the line, just missing the head of Saints keeper Alan Mannus on the way.
Instead of Dow being hailed a hero for scoring what would have been a wonder goal and United grabbing the initiative, he had to look on in frustration as Saints edged ahead just before half-time through Steven Anderson and then added another from Steven MacLean in the second period to lift the trophy.
Fast forward six and a bit months and the lifelong United supporter is relishing the chance to finally open up another Scottish Cup chapter when they play Motherwell in the fourth round at Fir Park today.
“I have watched the chance since then, maybe a couple of days after the game,” revealed Dow.
“I know some boys would rather not do that but I wanted to see it.
“I still don’t know how the ball didn’t go in.
“Looking at it again, it also missed their keeper’s head by about an inch on the way back off the post.
“It gets closer every time I watch it but it’s one of those things.
“Had that gone in then it could have been a different game. It just wasn’t to be.
“I was all ready to celebrate and people have mentioned to me since that I could have gotten the rebound but I couldn’t have anticipated that because I thought it was in.
“We also had the one for Nadir Ciftci later on when he hit the bar so we can look back on those chances which were about an inch away from counting.
“However, we didn’t perform on the day and St Johnstone deserved to win.
“It was the worst feeling ever, losing that cup final, and the other boys feel the same.
“The best thing is to focus on this season’t competition and try to get to another final.
“If we win on Saturday it could give is a massive opportunity to make progress in the cup
“There are a lot of our teams from our league playing each other so that means half of them are going to go out.
“That will open up the competition a bit so we are really hoping to be in the draw.”
With Ciftci suspended and Mario Bilate injured for today’s match, that puys Dow in the box seat for the central striking role.
Dow is relishing being given that chance, just as he was last time the Tangerines visited Lanarkshire.
“I may be playing up top with Nadir suspended and Mario injured but that’s fine because I like playing there,” he said.
“We will just have to cope without them.
“I was in that position the last time we played Motherwell but, really, you are moving around with four or five other people involved.
“You try to do that to make it difficult for the other team to pick you up so it won’t be a problem.
“In fact, it’s a good system to play when it clicks and hopefully it will click at Fir Park.
“We will be looking to play the same we did three weeks ago, the only difference beign that we want to take our chances this time.
“If we play as we did last time then I would be confident that we will be confident of winning the tie.”
As well as missing Ciftci and Bilate, United will be without the banned Callum Morris and injured John Rankin.
Twitter: @C_IRoache