What had begun with optimism and hopes that United could continue the progress made the previous year would end up being statistically the club's worst season since before World War II.
Eddie Thompson took over as chairman with the season barely a month old and quickly sacked Alex Smith, though a run of just two wins from the first ten games did not help the manager's cause.
After a failed attempt to recruit Ian McCall, Paul Hegarty was put in charge provisionally until the end of the season.
While the former club hero got off to a decent start with 7 points from five matches, a dismal run of ten weeks without a win followed, leading to Hegarty being dismissed at the end of January and McCall being successfully recruited.
The key factor in McCall's change of heart was that while his previous club Falkirk were runaway leaders of the First Division, it was by now evident that they were unlikely to be promoted as their ground did not meet the SPL's requirements.
However, this good finish could not mask what had been an extremely poor season by any measure, and left McCall facing a major reconstruction job.