PAUL Sturrock was persuaded to lie about his age to get his first contract with Dundee United and, more than 40 years later, there remains something of the man-child about the Tannadice favourite of the seventies and eighties.

‘Luggy’ as he is universally known, returned this week to the city where he made his name as a member of a team that repeatedly defied the odds during a spell of sustained excellence in which they consistently challenged the Old Firm as well as Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen for domestic supremacy.

They would win the Scottish title and a couple of League Cups, but their story largely revolves around gallantry in defeat.

Admittedly they won the club’s only Scottish title and two League Cups during that period, but during that era United would lose six Scottish Cup finals and it is consequently apt that the film which brought Sturrock back home tells the story of their most magnificent failure of all.

‘Tannadice 87’ is a documentary account of a campaign which ended 30 years ago with defeats in both the Uefa and Scottish Cup finals for a team that had humbled European giants Barcelona and Borussia Monchengladbach.

The Uefa Cup semi-final win in Germany, following a draw at Tannadice, was a remarkable achievement, ending a run of 55 matches without defeat on their home patch in European ties for their hosts, but it is the matches against the Spanish giants in the quarter-final that are most fondly remembered.

A 1-0 victory at Tannadice – Kevin Gallacher will spend the rest of his life being asked whether his second minute goal was the result of a deliberate shot or a mishit cross – was followed by a 2-1 win at the Nou Camp as United preserved an astonishing record that is unlikely ever to be matched or, for that matter damaged, since they have a 100 per cent winning record against Barca, having also beaten them home and away in The Fairs Cup in 1966.

Yet Sturrock delights in retelling how he might never have had the chance to play his part in all of that had it not been for the quick thinking of the man who introduced him to the club 13 years earlier.

The youngster’s ability had been brought to the attention of combustible manager Jim McLean, but as they arrived for discussions about his potential recruitment to the ground staff a problem had emerged.

“I was told coming up the stairs at the Perth ice rink that Jim McLean was wanting a 16-year-old for the ground staff. I was 17,” he explained.

“So the scout said ‘You’re 16.’ I said ‘No, I am 17.’ He said: ‘No, for today you are 16.’ So I signed as a 16 year old.”

He was to spend 15 years there as a player, an old-fashioned one club man, before accepting a job on the coaching staff in 1989, but he admits that the ill-fated 1987 season was something of a watershed.

“Dundee United were everybody’s favourite second team in Scotland – and England too, because when their teams were banned. We were regularly getting to Uefa Cup quarter finals and semi-finals. It was the only European football they were seeing.

“Dundee United had difficult times that season too with injury and there was a bit of unrest because some of the other players had moved on – Davie Dodds, Ralphie Milne and Richard Gough.

“Oh, it was all a bit of fun but I think we were a bit disappointed the family were splitting up because we had won the league only four years earlier. We all enjoyed each other’s company. We were all friends.”

Tannadice 87 will be broadcast on BBC Alba on May 20.