Football: McSwegan's personal best
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Your support makes all the difference.Even had it not been a perfectly struck volley into the top corner, Gary McSwegan may well have rated the goal which defeated Rangers last night as his favourite ever.
The magnificent extra-time strike which consigned the holders Rangers to a Coca-Cola Cup quarter-final home defeat was not McSwegan's first at Ibrox.
The 26-year-old forward began his career at Rangers in 1987, but made faltering progress at the club as he struggled to fulfil his potential.
With reluctance he came south of the border in 1993 to join Notts County, before last year's Tayside switch to United.
After coming on as a substitute, McSwegan at last showed Rangers fans his true qualities, albeit silencing them in the process.
To call McSwegan's 96th-minute winner a volley of abuse would be overstating it, as his affection for Rangers remains. But he still took great satisfaction in a goal which at once opens up the Coca-Cola Cup for the "New Firm".
Celtic will be favourites but have not won the trophy since defeating Rangers 2-1 in 1983 - despite being in three finals since then.
McSwegan said: "I've never scored a better goal than that. It just landed really well on the volley for me.
"I have done well personally in this competition this season and this proves the team are good enough to progress further against anyone.
"To lose five goals at Ibrox last time round [23 August] was a bad experience, but last night's performance put that right. We knew they had players like Paul Gascoigne and Brian Laudrup missing because of international duty and we took our chance."
United's manager, Tommy McLean, enthused: "Gary's goal was very special and came at a time when the match was finely balanced.
"He gave us the impetus we needed after he came on to go through to the semi-finals where we have to be confident against anybody. I am delighted with this win, especially as we looked more comfortable towards the end after we'd scored.
"They had most of the possession throughout but we stopped them from using it as they would have liked and put the 5-1 defeat last month to bed."
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