As Dundee face St Johnstone in the Ladbrokes Premiership this weekend, we take a look at a player who played for both clubs, Australian midfielder Mark Robertson.
Robertson was born in Sydney in April 1977 and started his football career with Stanmore Hawks in 1994 before moving onto Marconi Stallions.
In 1997 Robertson moved to the UK to have trials with Nottingham Forest and Rangers but eventually joined Burnley after impressing manager Chris Waddle enough to win a contract.
He made his debut for the Clarets against Bristol Rovers a year later and played a further ten league games during as Burnley escaped relegation on the last day of the season. A year on, during another season of real struggle, he featured in over half of the games under the new manager Stan Ternent, and scored his first, and only Burnley goal in a 3-3 Boxing Day draw at York.
He wasn’t in Ternent’s rebuilding plans however and during the 1999/2000 season, as Burnley won promotion, there was only one substitute appearance in the league for Mark. That was at Bristol Rovers and having come on as a sub, he was substituted himself later in the game as Burnley went down to a 1-0 defeat.
Robertson headed straight for an Australian training camp after that game, a move that infuriated Ternent whose Burnley team had a home game against Bournemouth just four days later. The Aussies were training at Watford but Ternent said: “I’ll go down and bring him back myself.”
Ternent did get him but Mark was an unused sub and didn’t play for Burnley again. He returned to Australia to play on loan with Wollongong Wolves where he played in one of the greatest domestic Australian matches in history.
At the Subiaco Oval on June 11th 2000, Perth Glory led the Wollongong Wolves 3-0 in the NSL Grand Final after 45 minutes under the West-Australian sun. The introduction of Mark Robertson at half-time would coincide with a historic comeback and a memorable penalty shoot-out, in which Robertson would convert his spot-kick and help Wollongong on their way to winning one of the most stunning championships in the history of Australian football.
After Burnley won promotion it came as something of a surprise when he was offered a new deal as Turf Moor as they prepared for football at a higher level. As it happened, he turned down the deal but was back with the squad for 2000/01 pre-season.
Having offered him a deal, Burnley retained his registration and, with him being under 24 years of age, wanted a fee for him. That fee came towards the end of August 2000 when Swindon Town manager Colin Todd paid £50,000 for his services but after 13 appearances and one goal for The Robins, moved north to join Ivano Bonetti’s Dundee in the New Year.
Robertson’s father Alex had been on Dundee’s books in the 1970s and Mark made his Dark Blue debut after the first SPL split as a second half substitute at home to Hibernian.
Robertson came off the bench the following week in a 2-1 win over Kilmarnock at Dens and made his first start seven days later when he played the full 90 minutes in a superb 2-0 win over champions Celtic at Parkhead. Fabian Caballero got both goals and the win was all the more remarkable because The Dee had played an hour with just ten men after Zurab Khizanishvili, who was signed on the same day as Mark, was sent off.
At the start of the following season Robertson played in both legs of the UEFA Intertoto Cup tie with Sartid, starting the first leg at Dens and coming off the bench in Yugoslavia and was a regular in the first team squad, playing 23 times.
Season 2002/03 saw a new manager at Dens with Jim Duffy taking over from Bonetti and he didn’t pick Robertson until a League Cup tie with Partick in October. He would feature just four more times in the next three months and in February was allowed to go out on loan to First Division St Johnstone until the end of the season.
He made his Saints debut at Falkirk on February 1st, scored his first goal a week later in a 2-1 win at Queen of the South and was a regular at McDiarmid until the end of the season.
Mark returned to Dens Park in the summer for pre season but went back to Perth on a three month loan deal just before the transfer window closed and by December had made 13 appearances.
Unfortunately in November Dundee went into administration and Mark was one of 25 staff released, 15 of which were players. He had to wait until January until he could sign for a new club and when the window opened joined Stockport County, with who he remained until January 2006.
Whilst at Dens, Robertson earned his one and only cap for Australia when he played for the Socceroos against Japan in Shizuoka in the AFC/OFC Challenge Cup in August 2001.
After leaving Stockport, Mark returned to Australia and signed for Perth Glory in the A-League. He stayed in Perth for 18 months then had a short spell in Hungary with FC Sopron before returning home to end his career with two home town clubs, Sydney FC and Sydney United.
Mark hung up his boots at the relatively young age of 32 and set up his own soccer school called MR Soccer. Although the MR was chosen because of his initials it has now become commonly known as Mr Soccer with Mark as director and head coach, working closely alongside his dad Alex and friend Lucas Neill.
Earlier this year Robertson returned to the club when he came to the 2018 Hall of Fame Dinner In February to support his former team mate Gavin Rae (who is married to Mark’s wife’s sister) who was inducted with a Legends Award.
Honours at Dundee:
Australia full cap: 1
Appearances, Goals:
League: 9 + 16 subs
Scottish Cup: 1 + 1 sub
League Cup: 3
Europe: 1 + 1 sub
Totals: 32
