Dave Bowman's colourful career in the League Cup ONCE the scourge of footballing officialdom, the ways to be wicked that genial coach Dave Bowman now chooses can be marked down as jocular. Having started his career with boyhood club Hearts and enjoyed outstanding service with Dundee United, the 48-year-old doesn't really need reminded of the last League Cup tie between two clubs who will face one another in the quarter-finals of the competition at Tannadice on Wednesday. Yet, when he is dutifully run through what happened back in the Tynecastle first leg of the pair's October 1984 semi-final - then played on a home and away basis - he can't resist faux surprise at the fact that a night in which he started in midfield, had a spell in goal after Henry Smith was forced off injured, ended with his being red-carded. "Aw, yir kiddin," he says. They've no" changed." That dismissal 28 years ago proved the first of his career; the first injustice meted out by the men in the middle against what is often euphemistically called a combative midfielder. Bowman, tongue firmly in cheek, implicates a future team-mate who was also sent off in the same incident. Big Davie [Narey], he was the problem in it all; an animal. He was always like that... I can't believe that the start of my downfall was the big gentleman. It couldn't have happened with a worst person because he was the nicest man in football. It was all over nothing, nothing at all. You are not going to believe it, but I think I caught him late. He reacted, then as usual everybody jumped in and the referee thought "oh, I have got to do something here" and after that he sent Davie and me off. As my first one [red card], that was the hard one... After that I found it was quite easy. The brief YouTube clip of an incident in a fiesty semi-final tie won 2-1 by United, and in which there were eight players booked, seems to bear out that the young Bowman was a bit of an innocent. He was rarely thereafter in a career characterised by card flashing from referees. It led to him being nicknamed Psycho by the support at the Tannadice club. Towards the end of his career, while playing for Forfar, he was effectively red-carded four times for foul and abusive language in one match, a transgression that earned him an infamous 17-game ban. Yet, in that League Cup semi-final of 1984, not only did the then 20-year-old have no reputation to speak of, he did not have sufficient stature to prevent him being pushed around all the way into the Hearts goal as an emergency keeper. "I had never done it before but because I was one of the youngest they just flung the jersey to me and that was it," he says. Again, he can't resist finger-pointing or a fraught experience, which actually Bowman handled brilliantly by making a couple of fine saves. Jimmy Bone was the cause of it all. He grabbed Heggie's [Paul Hegarty] arm and Heggie drew his elbow back hoping to hit Jimmy in the stomach, but Henry had gone down to look at the ball and caught him straight in the face and knocked him out. It was the financial state of Hearts - who lost that semi-final 5-1 on aggregate after John Clark headed two goals past a groggy Smith in the first leg - that meant Bowman was sold to Coventry City by Christmas of 1984. Hearts haven't changed much in all that time, when I left Hearts, everyone knew at the time that it was financially-driven. Either me, wee Robbo [John Robertson] or Gary Mackay had to go. I was sold and ended up on a lot more at Coventry. But down there, they were quite happy to finish one place above the relegation zone and a couple of games in the cup and it was a good season. I thought there was more to football than that and that didn't satisfy me at all. I was fortunate wee Jim [McLean] came in for me 18 months later. And what happened, Coventry went and won the FA Cup. In his first season he helped United reach the UEFA Cup final, which he remembers with only slight fondness because it was lost. Finishing with runners-up medal became a feature of his time on Tayside, with one Scottish Cup badge the only one of seven he couldn't look at and grumble over. McLean, though, he credits with that journey bringing so much fulfilment. "It is all history with wee Jim, in terms of what I would or wouldn't have achieved but for me he was the one reason I ended up playing for Scotland," says Bowman, capped six times and a member of the national squad for the 1992 European Championship finals. He just pushed and pushed you and without him I could never have contemplated playing for my country. Bowman banked countless memories and misdemeanour charges on his way to earning a testimonial at Tannadice, where he still works, coaching the under-20s. And his position makes him perfectly placed to understand what the League Cup could mean to the present United manager Peter Houston, who will probably have to accept a 40 per cent wage cut if he wants to stay in post beyond his contract expiring in the summer. For both clubs on Wednesday, this tie could be a real springboard for giving them the opportunity to win a trophy. Wee Jim achieved millions up here, he really did, but he didn't get the Scottish Cup. Peter's had the Scottish Cup and if he could get the League Cup, well... No matter what happens when his contract is up, if he does want to move on, what a pedigree he would have. He would have taken a club to two trophies and been in Europe the last three years. His managerial record is only second best to Wee Jim. In fact if you look at wee Jim's first three years, it would be far better. So if he can go on and achieve, what an act he would have followed. Bowman's disciplinary record might take some beating, but he isn't irritated by the fact his 17-game ban may be what some choose to remember him by. "It was ridiculous and made a mockery of them more than anything else," he says. Neither does he see it as making him the less than perfect role model for those under his charge. I'm up front about it, and I'm the biggest example to them. I actually say to the kids, "look at me, I would have had a much longer career had I not got into so much trouble." What is the point of arguing the toss, I have never known a referee change his mind yet. As a player Bowman tried plenty to do this, mind you, in the most colourful, four-letter-word-strewn fashion.