Article: It's out with the new and in with the old for a united front; Dundee United's season seemed destined for disaster, writes Michael Grant, but that was before manager Alex Smith turned to a few experienced professionals

CENTRAL defenders are renowned for their scars, missing teeth or broken noses, but Jim Lauchlan will testify that nothing hurts quite like a slap in the face.

Rejection is hard to take, even for a 6ft 1in Glaswegian, and Lauchlan felt unloved on the doorsteps of three clubs this season before being taken in by Dundee United in October. Even Celtic, the team he will face in the Tennent's Scottish Cup semi-final this afternoon, once considered buying him before the manager at the time, Tommy Burns, went off the idea and looked elsewhere.

It was only when he arrived at a club populated by men from Honduras,Argentina, Cameroon and Uruguay that the 24-year-old found somewhere that later felt ...

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