The first half hour was a snore fest and should provide few difficulties for the BBC editing crew tonight. Aside from a decent Andy Dorman shot, the only talking point was Gary Mason going off injured. Fingers crossed it's nothing too serious.
Mark Corcoran was booked for a poor tackle on Lee Wilkie before things finally got going in the final ten minutes of the half. van Zanten forced Arab keeper Lukasz Zaluska to be at full stretch to keep out his shot, before Corcoran volleyed David Barron's cross back across goal, only for Dorman to somehow fail to tap it in from about an inch out. Another chance came before the break, with Zaluska doing well to deny Corcoran's shot.
Referee Mike McCurry came in for some stick for his performance in the League Cup semi on Wednesday night and seemed intent to stick with his novel interpretation of the hand ball - do whatever the hell you want - at Love Street today. He made several poor decisions all game, as did his officials, and you have to worry about the standard of refereeing in this country. United seemed to get most decisions for the first half of the first half, while Saints seemed to get most up until half time.
The second half started at a fast pace, Hugh Murray and Noel Hunt both going close for their teams before some more hand balls by United players - ignored by McCurry who seemed to think he's been in charge of the Scottish Rocks or the Six Nations this week - ended with the ball falling to Craig Dargo, who shot wide.
Dorman had a shot deflected over for a corner after some neat penalty box passing, before United finally got going after bringing on Mark de Vries and Danny Swanson. The latter certainly looks a find and started to cause a few problems to the Saints defence, although nothing too serious.
van Zanten had a fantastic chance to score with a quarter of an hour left, beating his man before shooting widce with his wrong foot, while in the final minute Will Haining let fly with a rocket shot that Zaluska turned behind for a corner as the game drew to a close.
So, February 12 at Tannadice is the when and where for the two teams. If we play like this again then we have a decent chance, even if United up their game. Just as long as the referee and officials know what hand ball is, what to do when the ball is over the touchline and who gets a throw in when the ball goes out off a Saints player...