Willie Pettigrew remembers Dundee United's trip behind the Iron Curtain

IT is a well-publicised quirk that when Dundee United face old foes Slask Wroclaw in their Europa League qualifier on Thursday, the Polish club's coach will be the self-same Orest Lenczyk who was in charge when the visitors were battered 7-2 at Tannadice in the UEFA Cup in 1980. Speak to Willie Pettigrew, scorer of two of United's goals that night, and you get the distinct impression he would delight in players enjoying the same longevity as those in football management.

At 58, Pettigrew is ten years younger than Lenczyk. Yet the former Scotland striker talks of experiencing "senior moments" and how the locks which flowed during his days as a flamboyant and thrilling goalscorer for, principally, Motherwell, but also United, Hearts, and Morton, are "now in the sink". He does so, though, with the same sharpness and wit that rarely deserted him in the penalty box.

Curiously, Pettigrew says he has more vivid memories of the goalless away leg in Wroclaw, held at the Oporowska Stadium that Peter Houston's side will play in on Thursday, than a return leg win that proved to be United's biggest in Europe until 1997. Poland then was a country on the edge. Solidarity, the first non-communist-run trade union in a Warsaw Pact country, had been set up only weeks before United's September visit. "I remember there were concerns about the Russians invading and the Foreign Office were involved in us getting access to the country," he recalls.

After flying into Warsaw, Pettigrew will never forget the transport laid on for United to get to Wroclaw. "The plane was a wee three-wheeler thing. When you walked to the back of it, you half expected it to pop up at the front. It was the sort of old-style propeller thing you would see Harrison Ford hanging off in the Indiana Jones films."

Pettigrew certainly proved an adventurer in tangerine, helping his club get their hands on hitherto mythical treasures. He always felt, however, there was little permanence to his position in the United line-up.

He thought he had that at Motherwell but made his way to Tayside with a degree of reluctance because he didn't see "eye-to-eye" with then Motherwell manager Ally MacLeod. When the Fir Park club were relegated to the First Division, he was "sweet talked" by Jim McLean into a move in August 1979 that cost United 100,000, then a huge fee. "Only for me to realise what he was like," Pettigrew jokes. "Out of the frying pan into the fire."

Yet, within months the striker had secured his place in United folklore with a double in the League Cup final replay win over Aberdeen that earned the club their first piece of silverware.He went on to bag 22 goals that season and had a pivotal role in the retention of the trophy the following season, scoring in a 3-0 semi-final second leg victory at Celtic Park before playing in the final against Dundee. But by then he felt he was on borrowed time. He had recovered from a broken collar bone sustained in pre-season to play against Wroclaw, and scored as United lost on the away goals rule to Belgian club Lokeren in the following round. But he describes his role in a three-man strike force with Davie Dodds and Paul Sturrock as one of McLean's many foibles.

"Playing three centre-forwards wasn't a good system and wasn't working, but we were getting away with it then," he says. "And Jim was very superstitious in that he wouldn't change anything if we were getting results. I knew that as soon as we stopped getting the breaks, I would be the guy to drop out. He had a penchant for players he had brought through the ranks, so he wouldn't drop his two home products in the frontline. At that time Ralph Milne was also coming through, and he was a wide man who allowed him to play a more orthodox 4-4-2. I remember when he first dropped me to the bench he asked if I was upset. But I wasn't one of those players to go 'why me, why me', when my time came. Football creates hierarchies and sometimes you just have to accept your place in them. I took John Goldthorp's place at Motherwell and after I moved to Hearts (for 120,000] John Robertson nudged me out in the season we won promotion to the Premier Division.

"I went to United to play top-flight football, win trophies and play in Europe, and I achieved all those things so I'm thankful to wee Jim for the chance he gave me. I feel pretty honoured to have got the goals that brought the club their first ever trophy. Jim was building a team that would go on to win the league within two years and make a real impression in Europe, so I can't really grumble about the team decisions he took."

McLean always cites the September 1981 5-2 mauling of Monaco in the Principality as the night United perfected the entirely un-British passing, counter-attacking game, that propelled them to the UEFA quarter-finals the same season and the final of the same tournament, and European Cup semi-final, later that decade. Pettigrew remembers the momentous evening in Monte Carlo for very different reasons, however.

"I was on the bench that night but there was great joy on the team bus. Then wee Jim strode right up the middle of it and told me in front of everyone he had received a bid from Hearts and I would leaving. The deal was done the next day. People berate agents these days but at least you have someone fighting your corner. Then, you were powerless in any decisions about your own career."

Pettigrew returned to United to coach at youth level, Garry Kenneth among those he tutored, and now takes the under-14s at his first footballing love, Motherwell.Two years ago, he was brought on to the Tannadice pitch at half-time when they were playing the Lanarkshire club. The experience is one that will not dull with his advancing years. "It was surreal," he says. "It is sometimes hard enough to get one group of fans behind you but both sets of supporters were chanting my name. It was quite moving."