Cammy Kerr’s Dark Blues beat Celtic 1-0 in Cammy’s testimonial at the Scot Foam Stadium tonight. Cammy himself scored the winner from the penalty spot after 90 minutes. The first 70 minutes featured the Dee’s current players. From then on the Dark Blues were represented by a crowd pleasing mixture of Cammy’s boyhood heroes, Deefiant legends, and fondly remembered stars from Cammy’s era in the first team.
Dundee started with only two players, Joe Shaughnessy and Jordan McGhee, who began Saturday’s win over St Mirren. They played only the first half hour. The rest of the starting eleven had all featured in the first team this season, except for Marcel Lewis who was playing in left midfield. Celtic fielded a team consisting largely of young players.
The first half saw the night’s serious football, but it was largely a low key affair. In fact there wasn’t a shot on target, although both teams did have a go.
The experienced players in the youthful Celtic team were in defence and the young attackers struggled to get through the Dee defence to test Adam Legzdins in goal.
Jordan McGhee, at right wing back, had two efforts which flew too high, a header from a lovely cross by Charlie Reilly and a fierce angled drive after the Celtic defence missed a long ball down the right.
Lewis and Reilly both took the chance to show some nice touches. Lewis’s defence splitting pass forced Scott Bain to race out of his penalty area. The former Dee jsut beat Ryan Howley to the ball but whacked his clearance against the midfielder and was relieved to see the rebound fly wide of his goal.
Celtic very nearly took the lead at the start of the second half. They opened up the Dee defence with a slick attack but Legzdins pulled off a superb save from the close range shot. Dundee had the occasional promising attack but couldn’t trouble Bain in the second half until the substitutes changed the game!
On 70 minutes the Dark Blues made wholesale changes, sending on a dazzling array of Dee legends. Of course Cammy stayed on.
The legends might have gained a few pounds in weight and lost a few yards of pace over the years, but they still showed some flashes of the skills that lit up Dens in years gone by.
Ivano Bonetti tried an audacious chip, but Rab Douglas stretched up to take it comfortably. Big Rab was also something of a spoilsport, saving a good effort from Cammy Kerr when the man of the night burst forward.
Ivano Bonetti and Juan Sara combined elegantly to set up Gary Harkins, but sadly the former Dee wizard couldn’t find the pace to get a shot in.
On 90 minutes Harkins showed us he could still do it when he took a long, raking pass from James McPake, shimmied into the penalty area, and was downed for a stonewall penalty.
Needless to say Cammy KERR took the spot kick, sending Rab the wrong way to score confidently.
Cammy was then substituted so he could milk the applause that reflected the love and respect he has earned over his Dee career.
Thank you Cammy! Thank you for everything you’ve given us. One of our own indeed. You’ve lived the dream we’ve all had.
Dundee FC (up to 70 minutes) 3-5-2
Adam Legzdins
Cammy Kerr (c), Joe Shaughnessy (Ricki Lamie 30), Lee Ashcroft
Jordan McGhee (Ewan Murray 30), Ryan Howley (Luke McCowan 56), Mo Sylla (Callum Lamb 56), Marcel Lewis, Charlie Reilly
Zach Robinson, Diego Pineda
Dundee FC (from 70 minutes) 3-5-2
Julian Speroni
Barry Smith (Darren O’Dea 84), James McPake, Cammy Kerr (Tommy Young 90+1)
Jim McAlister, Paul McGowan, Callum Lamb (Craig Robertson 74), Ivano Bonetti, Gary Harkins
Fabian Caballero, Juan Sara (Craig Wighton 88)
Unused substitutes: Welsh (gk), Dario Bonetti.
Goal: Kerr (90 pen).
Booked: none.
Celtic
Bain, Lagerbielke, Bernabei, Welsh, Kobayashi, Davidson, McArdle, Cummings, Thomson, Quinn.
Substitutes: Douglas (gk), Osagie, Agbaire, Robertson, Bonetig, Bonnar, Dobbie, Haddow.
Booked: none.
Attendance: 3,363.
Report: James Christie.
