rooted to the bottom of the league. He showed incredibly loyalty however and stayed with the beleaguered Dees and against all the odds led them to a seventh place finish at the end of that year.
There was real concern that the Club would not survive and the drastic cost cutting that was necessary to do so, impacted not just on that season but continues until today. In 2005 the Dark Blues were relegated in dramatic style on the final day of the season after Tam McManus' injury time shot which hit the post would have kept them up and the first season in the lower leagues saw Duffy and his replacement Alan Kernaghan both sacked.
Alex Rae replaced the Irishman in the summer of 2006 but a third and then second place finish couldn’t get The Dee back up and he was replaced in November 2008 by Jocky Scott for his third spell in charge.
Scott led Dundee to ALBA Challenge Cup victory in November 2009 with a thrilling 3-2 win over Inverness Caledonian Thistle but a faltering league campaign allowed the Highland side to overturn Dundee’s lead to take the First Division title and saw Jocky replaced by former skipper Gordon Chisholm in March 2010.
Chisholm was himself replaced in October when the club entered a second period of administration with Barry Smith taking over the manager's role. He led the club on an amazing run to survive in the First Division after they were given a 25 point penalty by the Scottish Football League and the Dee-Fiant spirit which saw a sixth place finish against all the odds was dubbed by the press as Dundee’s “sixth unofficial major.”
Once again the fans also came to the rescue raising enough money to fund a CVA for administrator Bryan Jackson to become the majority shareholder and as the rebuilding began, Barry Smith led Dundee to their third second placed finish in five years which was this time enough to get The Dee back into the SPL after Rangers were liquidated and restarted in the Third Division.
Promotion to the top tier came very late in the closed season however, leaving Barry Smith very little time to prepare for an SPL assault and after struggling at the foot of the table for the entire season he was replaced in February by former favourite John Brown.
Brown was initially appointed on an interim basis but a series of impressive displays which delayed the inevitable relegation much longer than most expected, deservedly earned Bomber the job full time and he now looks forward to trying to get Dundee back into the top flight at the first time of asking.
many many thanks for allowing me to put the story on here Kenny