Dundee United

Also written as Dundee Utd.

The club

Dundee United were founded in 1909 as Dundee Hibernian and took their present name in 1923. They play at Tannadice Park, which holds 14,223 and stands about a hundred yards from Dens Park, the home of city rivals Dundee. The club are known as the Terrors or the Tangerines, a nickname earned from the strip: tangerine shirts with black shorts, adopted in 1969.

The club's own website at dundeeunitedfc.co.uk blocks automated fetching, redirecting requests away from the page, so nothing here comes from official club releases directly. The head-to-head figures below are taken from the Arab Archive, an independent Dundee United record project that covers every competitive match since 1909.

Recent seasons

United finished ninth in the Premiership in 2020/21 and fourth in 2021/22. The 2022/23 season ended in relegation from bottom place, twelfth. They came straight back up as Championship champions in 2023/24 with 75 points from 36 games, six clear of Raith Rovers, having gone 14 matches unbeaten during the campaign and drawn the division's best average home crowd at 8,408. Back in the Premiership they finished fourth in 2024/25 with 53 points, 15 wins and 15 defeats, which took them into the Conference League second qualifying round. Last season, 2025/26, was flatter: seventh with 45 points from 38 games, 10 wins, 15 draws and 13 defeats, and a goal difference of minus 11.

Honours and landmarks

The league title of 1982/83, won under Jim McLean in the Premier Division, is the club's only championship. They have won the Scottish Cup twice, in 1993/94 and 2009/10, and the League Cup twice, in 1979/80 and 1980/81. In Europe the club reached the UEFA Cup final in 1987 as runners-up and the European Cup semi-finals in 1983/84.

Record home attendance is 28,000 against Barcelona in the second leg of a Fairs Cup second-round tie on 16 November 1966. Maurice Malpas made 617 league appearances between 1981 and 2000; the Arab Archive puts Dave Narey's total across all competitions at 872. The club's leading scorer is Peter McKay, listed at 201 goals by Wikipedia and 203 by the Arab Archive. Johnny Coyle scored 43 league goals in a single season in 1955/56. Record fee paid is £750,000 for Steven Pressley from Coventry City in July 1995; record fee received is £4,000,000 for Duncan Ferguson to Rangers in July 1993. United won 11 consecutive matches between April and September 1983 and went 21 games unbeaten from May to October 1982.

Notable scorelines

Record victory: 14-0 against Nithsdale Wanderers in the first round of the Scottish Cup on 17 January 1931. The biggest league win is 12-1 against East Stirlingshire in Division Two on 13 April 1936. Record defeat: 1-12 against Motherwell in Division Two on 23 January 1954. The highest-scoring draw was 5-5 at Firs Park on 17 September 1955. The 1991 Scottish Cup final against Motherwell was managed on both benches by brothers, Jim McLean at United and Tommy McLean at Motherwell, and Motherwell won it.

Head-to-head notes

Against Dundee the derby record is 194 played, United 87, Dundee 58, 49 draws. The most recent meeting was on 26 April 2026, United winning 3-0 at home in front of 13,207. Against Celtic, 254 played, United 44, Celtic 152, 58 draws, though United won the last one 2-0 at Tannadice on 22 March 2026. Against Rangers, 246 played, United 48, Rangers 144, 54 draws; Rangers won 4-2 on 4 April 2026. Against Aberdeen, 286 played, United 93, Aberdeen 119, 74 draws, Aberdeen winning 2-0 on 9 May 2026. Against Heart of Midlothian, 224 played, United 77, Hearts 91, 56 draws, Hearts winning 3-0 at Tannadice on 31 January 2026. Against Hibernian, 230 played, United 78, Hibernian 84, 68 draws, Hibernian winning 3-2 on 4 February 2026. Against Motherwell, 237 played, United 99, Motherwell 80, 58 draws, Motherwell winning 2-0 on 28 February 2026. Against Kilmarnock, 178 played, United 60, Kilmarnock 69, 49 draws, Kilmarnock winning 3-0 on 2 May 2026. Against St Mirren, 180 played, United 87, St Mirren 54, 39 draws, the last meeting a 1-1 draw on 17 May 2026. Against St Johnstone, 191 played, United 80, St Johnstone 64, 47 draws, though the two have not met competitively since St Johnstone's relegation; the last fixture was a friendly on 15 July 2025 that finished 1-1. No published all-time record was found for Falkirk.

Right now (2026/27)

Jim Goodwin remains manager, appointed in February 2023 and now into his fourth full season. The summer recruitment leaned heavily on free transfers and the Australian A-League. Joshua Rawlins came in from Melbourne Victory and Lachlan Rose from Newcastle Jets, with New Zealand international Jesse Randall arriving from Auckland FC. Goalkeeper Jack Walton returned permanently from Preston North End for an undisclosed fee after two loan seasons at Tannadice between 2023 and 2025, and Jordan Amissah joined from Burton Albion. Michael Forbes signed from West Ham United and Dylan Tait from Falkirk, both on frees. Idjessi Metsoko arrived on loan from Viktoria Plzen. Craig Sibbald left for Falkirk and Ryan Strain departed on a free. Samuel Cleall-Harding went on loan to Dunfermline Athletic, Owen Stirton to Ayr United and Ruairidh Adams to Airdrieonians.

United won Premier Sports Cup Group B with nine points. They beat Stirling Albion 1-0 at Forthbank on 11 July, lost 1-0 at Montrose on 14 July, then beat Arbroath 3-0 and The Spartans 4-0 at Tannadice on 18 and 21 July. Montrose finished level on nine points and went through as one of the best runners-up. The Premiership campaign opens at home to Rangers on Friday 31 July 2026 at 8pm, Nick Walsh refereeing.

Sources

Researched and written for not4quarters. Where a fact could not be established from the sources read, this page says so rather than guessing.