Patrick Barclay - today's Times

[Dave_Og]

Can I recommend the piece in today’s Times (back page of “The Game”) by Patrick Barclay. I‘ve rarely read as neat a description of the pain and pleasure of supporting a less than constantly successful club. As he summarises it so well Man United fans will never understand. Can’t link to it unfortunately as you can only get it on-line with a subscription

[LeylandLatic]

Can I recommend the piece in today’s Times (back page of “The Game”) by Patrick Barclay. I‘ve rarely read as neat a description of the pain and pleasure of supporting a less than constantly successful club. As he summarises it so well Man United fans will never understand. Can’t link to it unfortunately as you can only get it on-line with a subscription

 

Scan, host on image shack for me and fellow paupers?

[24hoursfromtulsehill]

If you tell me the headline I can get it here at work.

[24hoursfromtulsehill]

I read it. From memory, it goes something like this:

 

I became a serious supporter of Dundee in 1958 and within five years life had turned into a state of recurrent bliss. Young or ignorant readers will think I am joking. But I'm not. There was no counselling in those days — you just had to pull yourself together — but if there had been, I'd have offered it to anyone unlucky enough to support another club.

 

That was how it felt to follow the dark blue when Bob Shankly was at the peak of his managerial powers. His brother Bill was said to have applied for the Dundee post, but not to have been considered because his letter arrived a day too late. I often wonder what became of him.

 

In 1962, Bob's team brought the city its first Scottish League championship, clinching the title in style in nearby Perth, where St Johnstone were beaten 3-0 and consigned to relegation.

 

Their centre forward was a young man called Alex Ferguson. He was not to experience a great deal of relegation in his career. But then he was not always asked to cope with such a team as Shankly's Dundee, whom at least one Scottish football historian considered comparable to Jock Stein's Celtic, the first British team to be champions of Europe.

 

Anyway, as the whipper-snapper Ferguson moaned about a goal he had been denied because of a foul — in his autobiography he even claimed, erroneously, that it would have kept St Johnstone up — some 25,000 of us made the euphoric journey home and soon we were contemplating the competition, initially dominated by Real Madrid, that was to grow into the Champions League.

 

First to visit Dens Park were Cologne, who lost 8-1. Sporting fell next, then Anderlecht — by now 40,000 were packing the ground — before AC Milan reached the Wembley final at our expense.

 

My adolescent assumption was that it would always be like this. Reality began to dawn only when the best players, led by Alan Gilzean, began to leave. It had been a beautiful dream.

 

It had come true, which, I suppose, made it more of a miracle than a dream, but all too soon we returned to the lot of most Scottish clubs other than Celtic and Rangers (with the glorious exceptions of Ferguson's Aberdeen and Dundee United under Jim McLean). We tried to stay in the top division, not always successfully, and made the odd appearance in a cup final.

 

Exiled, I tried to judge the health of the club by phoning friends and monitoring the home attendance: if it fell below 4,000, I fretted.

 

For a visit to Hampden Park in 2003, when Dundee reached the Scottish Cup final against Rangers, we did muster nearly 20,000, including partners, brothers and sisters, and glory-seeking part-timers like me.

 

Rangers won 1-0 and a good day out proved the start of the club's descent into disgrace, because we had got to the final with players we could not afford, Claudio Caniggia, the Argentine veteran, and Georgi Nemsadze, the Georgia captain, among them.

 

The fact that Rangers could not afford some of their players, either, proved irrelevant. Although their debts were greater than Dundee's, they did not go into administration, a course that Dundee under different ownership were to take again this season, incurring, because it was a second offence in eight years, an especially severe penalty of 25 points.

 

A personal opinion, which I desisted from spreading around Dens during Saturday's 1-1 draw with Greenock Morton, is that it was a fair punishment in the circumstances. Indeed, because of the heroics of a bare-bones team since it was imposed, it may turn out to be no punishment at all.

 

I could not help but smile last week upon reading that Peter Reid, the Plymouth Argyle manager, had reacted to a ten-point docking with the observation that his side would have to display title-winning form just to stay up. That is exactly what Dundee have done.

 

Under Barry Smith, a former captain who was promoted to manager after Gordon Chisholm and several key players were released at the height of the crisis — Dundee recently reached agreement with their creditors — they have gone 17 matches without defeat in the Irn-Bru League first division and, but for the penalty, would stand four points clear of Raith Rovers at the top of the table.

 

Yet promotion, even with the original squad, might have been an embarrassment and a temptation to make a bad financial situation worse. Another season in the first division is what Dundee need and the magnificent spirit of Smith's players looks likely to provide that.

 

I can honestly say that I have never been more proud to be a Dundee fan. Not to be associated with an administration — where I was brought up, you didn't buy things you couldn't afford or welch on debts — but to have the shirt filled by professionals who must play in every match because we cannot afford injuries or tiredness and who are quite plainly giving their all in return for modest wages.

 

One, in particular, asks not what his club can do for him ... Until recently, Craig Robertson, a 30-year-old accountant, played for Lochee United, the local semi-professional club. He was granted a testimonial and asked Dundee, whom he had supported all his life, to provide the opposition.

 

At the end of the match, he handed the proceeds, some £14,000, to the club's rescue fund. And now he is gracing the Dundee midfield, distributing the ball with an expertise that makes you wonder why the full-time ranks ignored him for so long.

 

Then there was the comeback of Neil McCann, once of Scotland and now Sky Sports, who came out of retirement to score a stoppage-time winner against Raith. A peach of a lob, too.

 

Accuse me of bias if you like — and for once I'll plead guilty — but there were times in the first half on Saturday when Dundee's football testified to the influence of Barcelona. One such move brought Sean Higgins a goal. After the interval, however, they sagged visibly; Robertson, understandably, was first, but just about every team-mate followed suit as the strain of a second match in four days told.

 

Against a different background, being pegged back by Morton and losing two points might have produced grumbles, but most of the 4,769 stayed to give the team a prolonged standing ovation. You could spend a lifetime in football and never experience a bond like that. Once again, it is a privilege.

 

And the point I am making is that kids who grow up with an allegiance to Manchester United or even Liverpool will never know it. They may think they do. But they have the medals to disprove it.

[razza699]

I read it. From memory, it goes something like this:

:lol:

[slurms mckenzie]

I read it. From memory, it goes something like this:

 

etc.

 

He just sounds bitter to me.

[downender2]

always thought Barclay to be a bit of a :censored:...opinion hasn't changed just cos he supports Dundee united

 

he's a journalist...he should be able to produce a yarn or 2

[24hoursfromtulsehill]

Or maybe just Dundee.

[otid]

I spent a lot of time in Dundee in the 90's and used to go regularly to Dens Park. I always thought they had a lot in common with Latics despite only competing in Dundee with United. Despite there being two teams in Dundee there as still as many Celtic and Rangers fans who make the trip to Glasgow each week and the pubs are full of armchair Rangers and Celtic fans. Never managed to understand why they built two stadia on the same street though.

[slurms mckenzie]

I've read posts on here which summarise the joys of supporting a lower league club better than this article. Then again, maybe I'm just grouchy as he has a couple of sideway swipes at Rangers.

Edited March 2, 2011 by slurms mckenzie