Dundee travel to Central Park this week to take on Cowdenbeath and so we take a look at a player who has played for both, Scottish internationalist Peter Robertson.
In the history of Dundee Football Club three players named Robertson have pulled on the dark blue of Scotland and the first of those was club captain Peter Robertson in 1903.
Peter Neilson Robertson was born on September 24th 1875 in Rosewell, Midlothian and first played football for his local club Polton Vale. Peter was described as “a strong player whether defending or assisting his forward colleagues” and he soon started to attract wider interest.
He went down south to Burnley but after only making one appearance in a 5-1 defeat away at Derby County on November 9th 1895, he returned to Scotland to play for Edinburgh side St Bernards before joining Cowdenbeath in the summer of 1898.
Peter was the son of ironstone miner Sam Robertson and his wife Elizabeth and the majority of his family moved with him to Fife. This was a top quality Cowdenbeath side who won four trophies in 1899 but he was poached by their rivals Raith Rovers soon afterwards and spent two years at Starks Park.
Robertson was a highly regarded left-half or centre half and in 1901 moved north of the River Tay to join Dundee and was immediately appointed club captain.
Peter made his debut for The Dee in the first game of the 1901/02 season in a 1-1 draw away at Celtic and played in every match in his first season, scoring his first goal for the club in a 2-0 home win over Hearts in December.
Peter enjoyed the peak of his career at Dundee and in February 1902 was rewarded with his inspiring performances at the heart of Dundee’s defence with a call up to the Scottish League side on February 15th 1902. Alongside team mates Jimmy Sharp and Fred McDiarmid, Peter lined up against the Irish League at Dens Park – the first international match at the three year old Dens – which the Scots won 3-0 in front of 12,000.
The following season Peter was joined at Dens by his brother Sam who signed from Cowdenbeath and his consistent performances earned him a call up to the full Scotland side in March 1903.
It was very much an experimental side that took the field against Ireland at Celtic Park with six players making their international debut and in front of 17,000 the Scots went down disappointingly by two goals to nil.
As a result seven of the starting XI never played for Scotland again and Peter was one of the casualties, meaning that it was his one and only full cap for his country.
Domestically Dundee were going well and went in the mix for their first ever major honour. Two weeks before the Ireland match Robertson lead Dundee out in a Scottish Cup semi-final replay against Hearts at Tynecastle after a 0-0 draw at Dens the week before but it was the Jambos who progressed to the final with a 1-0 thanks to a late Porteous in front of 32,000 – a record crowd for a match outside of Glasgow.
On the same day Scotland played Ireland at Parkhead, Celtic visited Dens and without Peter Dundee won 2-0 to remain in second place and keep the pressure on league leaders Hibernian. However the Dark Blues couldn’t claw back Hibernian’s lead and the Easter Road side won the Scottish League Championship while The Dee’s runners-up finish was the highest in their ten year history.
Dundee had high hopes of sustaining another league championship challenge the next year but after a decent start, (including a 3-1 win over Rangers at Dens in which Peter scored the third) were dealt a blow when Robertson picked up a serious knee injury. The injury came in a 7-1 win over Motherwell which left The Dee sitting in third place but without their inspirational skipper only managed four wins in their remaining 14 matches to finish mid table.
Peter’s badly hurt his knee more or less finished his football career although he visited Matlock down in England for treatment but struggled to overcome his injury. He did make a brief comeback with Nottingham Forest in 1904 but his injury badly hampered him and he gave up football.
After retiring as a professional footballer, Peter decided to emigrate to the United States and in July 1905 set sail on the Furnessia. He went to live and work in Benld, Macoupin County, Illinois and worked there as a miner for the Superior Coal Company of Sawyerville. Peter, who never married, died aged 53 on 4 February 1929 in St Francis Hospital, Litchfield, Illinois after a long illness after being joined in the America by his brothers Sam and Willie and another ex-Cowdenbeath player Jim Paton.
In a career cut tragically short, Peter made just 60 appearances in three seasons for Dundee but followed in the footsteps of Longair, Barrett and Keillor as being amongst the first Dees to wear the dark blue for club and country.
Honours at Dundee:
Scottish League Championship runners-up: 1902/03
Scotland full cap: 1
Scottish League cap: 1
Appearances, Goals:
League: 51, 2 goals
Scottish Cup: 9
Totals: 60, 2 goals
