When your team’s in administration the emotions take a severe pounding. All Dundee fans, the world over, have in one way or another suffered to some extent since Black Tuesday, the 25th November, when we knew for definite we were heading into the dark tunnel with only a tiny glimmer of light at the far end, seemingly so far away. Almost out of sight.
I’ve heard stories of physical illness, brought on by the stress and strain of the knowledge that their team is close to folding. I’d always wondered what it must have felt like to be one whose greatest love was Airdrie or Clydebank or Third Lanark. I always felt for them big time but never really knew what it was like. Now I know I wouldn’t wish such an experience on my worst enemy.
It’s a strange feeling. You know there’s thousands out there exactly like you yet the overpowering sense of loneliness, almost lost in your own web of despair and at times a feeling of complete hopelessness.
Yet tonight I’ll sleep well. No, of course, the debts haven’t been wiped out, the threat of complete oblivion is still very much with us.
But I mingled in a crowd of Dundee fans tonight that cheered their team on through the abyss that faced them and I went home, scarf out the window of the car, with a feeling of hope that we can, with the goodwill and might of fan power, survive this disaster and still remain a force to be reckoned with.
This isn’t a match report, it’s more a fan report. I found myself hoarse for the first time in many years, singing and cheering till the throat hurt and the vocal chords gave way to the self destruction I forced upon it.
I met fans from as far as Stoke who made their way to Livvy on Saturday to cheer Dundee on. When asked if they were Dundee fans one guy said "not really, but my dad was and he brought me up on a diet of Billy Steele and Alan Gilzean. I had to be here to help in some way, in his memory."
I met Celtic fans tonight, whole families, dad, mum and bairns, I met United fans, embarrassed at being there in the Bobby Cox, but there because they wanted two teams in Dundee, and I salute them for their gesture.
Then there were the part time fans. Looking out of sorts, because they don’t attend many games, sometimes not through their own fault, they were determined that if saving Dundee meant their coming back they felt they had to answer the call to get behind the team. The team they once supported but have always loved needed them and they responded.
Jim Crumley in the Courier summed it up succinctly in his own inimitable fashion. Those who see Dens as their spiritual home yet can’t attend games have to see this as payback time. Payback for the great times and the memories they have of the days when they did attend. They had to come back in times of dire need and many did tonight. .
The collection by the Dee4Life fund raised over £12,000. Not a fortune by any means and not likely to stave off the debts that are there. But I saw pensioners dig deep and throw fivers and tenners into the tins, kids throwing money in that they might have spent on pies and Bovril, or sweets. Quite a gesture by ones so old and young but who are equally aware of their team’s plight. One guy in the Bobby Cox handed over £500.
Then, of course, there was the team itself, and the Manager. All the pent up emotions, all the sorrow at seeing team mates made redundant in a swift sword stroke that included office lassies and devoted employees, less well known, but nevertheless all playing their part for Dundee Football Club.
I’ve seen some gutsy performances in the past from my beloved team, too many to relate. The one tonight has to go down as one of the bravest Dens Park has ever witnessed. Up against the ropes, few expected Dundee to come out of this game with anything, even the media cameramen who parked behind Speroni’s goal, all but for one who perhaps had a vision that just maybe the Gods would favour the brave in their suffering. I sincerely hope he got his picture, he deserved it.
I won’t deny I miss the flair, the cultured football of the Caballero’s and the Nemsadzes. But this was a night of passion. And with 8 Scots, including 3 Dundonians, Dundee fought themselves into the semi finals of the CIS Cup with one of the bravest performances I’ve ever seen from a Dark Blue eleven on this field of dreams.
You could feel the atmosphere from kick off. Every fan felt they had to do their bit for the club. Often treated like mushrooms the common football fan votes with his heart and few can fail to have been moved by the way they got behind their team in this, their hour of greatest need.
And how the players responded to their support. Hearts found themselves swept aside by tough tackling, commitment that didn’t allow them the space to strut the stuff that made them the 3rd force in Scottish football. And a lot of slick, cool, passing that made Dundee a danger every time they crossed the half way line.
And for the second time in 4 days it was a young kid who provided the goal, one who probably would have struggled to find the bench before the axe fell on more experienced campaigners. Mark Fotheringham was the hero we needed on Saturday against Livvy, a Dundee kid. Bobby Linn, a good Lochee laddie, brought through the ranks and nurtured by Stevie Campbell and Raymy Farningham, under the command of Kenny Cameron, got the final touch after a piece of sheer genius by the tireless Nacho Novo. That his shot hit the post and came out for the wee man to take the accolades was like a work of the best classic fiction.
All the pent up emotions, all the frustrations, the fears and the pressures of possible redundancy were let out in that magical moment that will live with me and all at this game forever. That a Dundee laddie scored the magical winning goal was perhaps seen by some as a message from above that there is still hope. And didn’t the wee man celebrate big time, almost entering the Bobby Cox to make his impassioned feelings known that here was another rising star, and one who cared about his local team.
I forgive you, Bobby, for once scoring 4 against my bairns team not so long ago. This was the stuff that dreams are made of.. When he scored again not long after when Novo again had mesmerised the Hearts defence and hit the post the offsides decision didn’t seem just to me, but then I’m as biased as they come for anything in dark blue. And I think Wullie Young’s well past his sell by date, despite his donating his match earnings to the Dee4Life campaign.
Jim Duffy, the Manager, has had a torrid time, having to tell players they were axed in the adminstration attempt to get the books to balance. He certainly let his hair down (sorry, Jim, no pun intended) and went ballistics when the final whistle went.
Yes, we’ll wake up tomorrow and the threat of closure will still be there. Yes, there’s a helluva long way to go before we can say we’re saved and all is well again. We might lose several more players before things turn out for the better.
But football fans take life one game at a time. And though we might have died a thousand deaths throughout this game and throughout the past week, and little has really changed, I think this was the day the Dees fans decided to take things into their own hands and try to save their beloved club from impending disaster.
Dundee, yes, my Dundee, we’re not dead yet, by any means.