On the 15th of October 2010, Dundee Football Club went into administration and two weeks later were deducted twenty-five points by the Scottish Football League – plunging them into a situation where they were twenty points adrift at the bottom of the First Division. The situation seemed hopeless; Administrator Bryan Jackson gave the club a 50/50 chance of surviving past Christmas and they seemed doomed to relegation at best, liquidation at worst.
But this was when an ordinary Dundee side shape-shifted into an extraordinary one following a second lurch into administration inside seven years. It was when the fans, as disillusioned as at any time in the club’s history, put their grumbles to one side and roared the team on as one.
Support swelled from the South Enclosure, from the Bobby Cox, from the main stand, and even, against Partick Thistle on the last home game, from the Bob Shankly, when all four stands saluted the heroes who had looked the Scottish Football League in the face and asked: 25 points? Mission Impossible? Not for the Dee-Fiant Dark Blues and the metaphorical cup lifted that day was survival.
The positive energy had spilled down onto the pitch and some strange things started to occur; Dundee began to win matches, or at least they stopped losing them. They remained unbeaten for a run of 23 matches; a club record. Even members of the fabled ’62 team doffed their caps.
The players tapped into the new mood. Into a bubbling pot was tossed some more potent ingredients; anger, frustration, defiance. Some seasoning was added. Old friends helped out, gloriously so in the case of Neil McCann and new friends wrote themselves into Dens Park folklore. Craig Robertson stepped up to the plate from Junior football and put his shoulder to the wheel, the way we have all dreamt of doing. He lived the dream. But, then, perhaps we all did to a certain extent.
Season 2010/11 was for many Dundee’s unofficial sixth major and the achievement of survival both on and off the pitch should never be underestimated or forgotten. The players gave their all and went on a record breaking unbeaten run to avoid relegation, while the supporters backed their club in numbers, turned Dundee games into a carnival atmosphere by the end of the season and raised the cash which saw the club exit administration in May 2011.
In the final league table Dundee finished in sixth place, twenty-four points ahead of tenth and nine points ahead of the play-off spot and manager Barry Smith was rightly proud of his players. In his final programme notes of the season, he wrote, “I am fortunate to have many great memories of my time at Dundee and the special feeling at the final whistle at Dingwall will certainly always be among them. When we were set the challenge in November to stay in this league we always believed it was possible and despite several obstacles put in our way, we achieved that aim. Everyone can be rightly proud of their contribution to helping the Club through this period.”
Smith had done a remarkable job since becoming interim manager in October and once again helped lead the club successfully through a turbulent administration period. He was club captain during the first administration in 2003, working tirelessly to help the fundraising off the pitch, while captaining the side to seventh place and survival on it and now seven years on, did it again as manager. This time however there was a points’ deduction to contend with, a transfer embargo and a skeleton squad and the rookie boss somehow managed to lead to Dundee to safety, astutely utilising the trialist system and playing some great football to boot.
In his speech at the Dundee Player of the Year Dinner at the Hilton Hotel on May 8th 2011, Dundee FC Supporters’ Society Chairman Scott Glenday paid tribute to Smith in his address by saying, “Barry, to say it was one helluva season would perhaps be an understatement. You inherited something that was broken and remarkably turned it into something beautiful; delivered what many people thought was impossible. You gave us exactly what the supporters wanted to see – good football, effort, endeavour, energy, honesty and commitment.”
There is no doubt that the efforts of the players and the fans was a symbiotic one and the two bonded unlike any time in Dundee’s or perhaps even any club’s history. Without the fans raising an incredible quarter of a million pounds, the CVA wouldn’t have been met and the club would have been liquidated. Yet, without the players’ magnificent run of results to avoid going down, the same outcome was conceivable as relegation would have likely meant part-time football, more jobs losses, less income and therefore little or no future.
But it was more than that. There was a desire, a passion and a combined will to save the club we all love. In his speech at the player of the year dinner, Barry Smith listed his three favourite games of the season, namely the win at home to Partick in November, the win over Raith at Dens in February and the game in Dingwall in April where Dundee secured safety and he pointed out how important the fans had been.
In the games against Partick and Raith, Barry talked about how the fans inspired the players by giving them unconditional backing and support that spurred them on to victory and pointed out that in his time at Dens – all fourteen years of it – this hadn’t always been the case. These matches were the best examples of the innumerable times that this had happened during the season.
At the Raith game in particular, Barry pointed out that with six minutes remaining not one Dundee fan had left the ground with the Dark Blues 1-0 down; not one. The fans were still wholeheartedly urging the players on and after captain Gary Harkins scored his sensational free kick in eighty-four minutes, the fans upped the noise in the belief that Dundee could actually go on and win the game. Of course, win it they did with McCann’s never-to-be-forgotten goal and Barry cited this as his highlight, probably alongside every other Dee who was there.
Interestingly enough, the facts bear out what Barry says as Dundee scored an incredible ten goals in the last ten minutes of games since administration but while the fans may well have inspired the team, it certainly worked both ways. No one could have predicted the record breaking 23 game unbeaten run the players would go on and the more they were winning, the more the supporters wanted to urge them on. They could see that the squad was giving their all for the cause.
Initially, an away match boycott was mooted by the fans after other SFL clubs voted to uphold the twenty-five point penalty but as the players continued to turn in performances and pick up points, the more the fans wanted to follow them away, culminating in over a thousand travelling to Dumfries on the last day of the season for a virtually meaningless game.
Certainly the postponement of games away from Dens may have helped because by the time away games started coming thick and fast, the unbeaten run was well underway. No away games for over a month in December and January meant some momentum had been built up at home with a 100% record in that period at Dens and the players have to take great credit for that.
But the fans turned up at home as well with attendances topping five thousand on four occasions and they beat at least one attendance in the SPL each weekend. Almost 14,000 fans turned out for the two Partick Thistle home games and the Shankly Stand was regularly open to home fans. With away fans negligible most weeks, the attendances at Dens were something which helped the club keep going financially and it showed that there were plenty of people who cared. It proved as well to the Administrator that Dundee were a club worth saving.
There is no doubt that the circumstances which led to all this are tragic and should never be forgotten but it did eventually inspire something beautiful. It was a rollercoaster ride of highs and lows where everyone who loved the club pulled together to save it. It was a season which no one will ever forget and it was a season where everyone connected with Dundee Football Club were ‘Dee-Fiant’ to the core!
Article by Kenny Ross
