Everyone at Dundee Football Club was devastated to learn of the passing of Honorary Club President and 1962 Scottish League championship winning goalkeeper Pat Liney at the age of 86.
Pat Liney is not only a Dundee FC goalkeeping great but also a bona fide Dark Blue legend, a Scottish League title winner, Club President, a DFC Hall of Fame inductee, a great singer and an absolute gentleman.
Pat started his football career with his local club Linwood Thistle before joining Junior side Dalry Thistle. A St Mirren supporter as a boy, never missing a home game, Pat had a burning desire to play for The Buddies and was offered a trial at Love Street but the night before he played in a cup game for Dalry and injured his knee and was gutted to miss out.
Pat then joined the army on his National Service and thought it was a great chance to travel abroad. He was keen to play football for the army team but when he was told that if you were selected, you were given a cushy life in Aldershot, he was worried he wouldn’t get to travel. He therefore told the team manager he was a right-half so that they wouldn’t pick him but, after the trial match, they asked for his boot size and told him he had made the team!
Pat had to come clean that he was actually a goalkeeper and didn’t want to play in the team as he wanted to travel and while they thought he was mad, they agreed to leave him out and sent him to West Germany.
Pat then signed for Dundee in 1957 from Dalry Thistle after catching the Dark Blues’ attention by saving five penalties in a cup tie and altogether made 121 appearances for The Dee before finally getting his chance to join St Mirren early in 1964.
He was signed by manager Willie Thornton and made his debut for The Dee on the last day of the 1957/58 season against Rangers at Ibrox and was thrust into the fray after regular keeper Bill Brown had been sent home with a virus. It was a memorable debut for Liney as not only did he perform admirably and keep a clean sheet, The Dee won 1-0 thanks to an Alan Cousin winner to record their first win in Govan since 1951.
Pat became Dundee’s regular number one after Brown’s departure to Tottenham Hotspur and it is his contribution as an ever present in Dundee’s championship side that he will always be fondly remembered at Dens Park. Indeed, Dundee record goal scorer Alan Gilzean stated on the 40th anniversary of that triumph that “Pat Liney’s contribution to Dundee’s championship season should never be underestimated and the fact that he was an ever present that year speaks for itself. He was rock solid and never let us down.”
Pat will most likely be remembered by Dundee’s supporters of a certain age for a crucial penalty save in the penultimate game of the season at home to St Mirren. Going into the match Dundee were still a point behind leaders Rangers but by half time Dundee were one up thanks to an Alan Cousin strike and Rangers were losing 1-0 at Pittodrie.
With 12 minutes left however, disaster struck when the referee awarded St. Mirren a penalty after an alleged handball from Gordon Smith and it looked like Dundee’s chances of winning the League Flag were about to evaporate.
Dundee had earlier in the season been knocked out the Scottish Cup by eventual runners-up St Mirren and in the build up to the game Pat’s father, himself a Buddies supporter, gave him some advice that would prove crucial a few months later. He told Pat that if St Mirren got a penalty, Jim Clunie takes them and always hammers it towards the top right hand corner. Although St Mirren never got a penalty in that game Pat always remembered that advice from his father.
When a nervous looking Clunie stepped up to take the kick, he did exactly what Pat’s father had predicted and hit it towards the top right corner, only to see Liney Jnr. twist in mid air and parry the ball to safety before collecting it.
Pat then threw the ball out to Gordon Smith on the wing and Smith then went down the wing beating two players, before looking up to see there was no one there, as the forwards were still patting Liney on the back. Smith then brought the ball back to the halfway line still beating men until the forwards could get back up field, which Pat described as, “an amazing sight and something only Gordon Smith could have done like that.”
Dundee scored a crucial second minutes later and when news filtered through that The Dons had held on to beat Rangers at Pittodrie, Dundee were now in pole position, needing a victory in their final game at Muirton to win the League.
At the time Pat didn’t realise the significance of the penalty save until Gordon Smith spoke to him after the game. Gordon told Pat, “You realise that if we win the League on Saturday, you will be famous in Dundee forever.” He was correct as no matter what Pat did before or after he was always remembered for that penalty save in Dundee, without which the League trophy might not have come to Dens.
Dundee would clinch the league the following Saturday with a 3-0 win at St Johnstone and they did so by recording a then club record 19 game unbeaten run earlier in the season.
In game 17 of that unbeaten run on January 20th 1962, Pat displayed his knowledge of the game during a 2-1 win over Third Lanark at Dens. Thirds were awarded an indirect free kick at the TC Keay end of the ground and when one of their players fired the ball past the defensive wall and into the net without anyone touching it, Pat nonchalantly picked the ball out of the net and placed it down for a goal kick.
The majority of the 17,500 inside the ground were confused as they assumed it was a goal but Pat knew it was a free kick and tried to rally and focus his team mates to get ready for his kick.
Pat was unlucky to only make two more appearances for Dundee after winning the title and missed out on the run to the European Cup semi-final and so just two years later left Dens to join his boyhood team St. Mirren where he made 48 appearances before moving to Yorkshire in 1966.
Pat first played for Bradford Park Avenue for a season before moving to Bradford City where he made 147 appearances between 1967 and 1972. Pat’s popularity at Valley Parade was in evidence years after he finished playing where he worked as a host in the pre match hospitality, a role he later fulfilled at Dens with distinction.
Pat stayed in Yorkshire until 1978 when he moved back to Blairgowrie but in the move back north he unfortunately lost his championship medal. Thankfully in 2005 the medal appeared in an auction house in Yorkshire and after contacting the police, Pat was reunited with his prize possession.
Fellow championship team member Bobby Wishart remembered his friend Pat as a great character and great to have around the dressing room and that he fancied himself as a bit of a crooner. This was backed up after he moved to Yorkshire and led a double life as a nightclub singer!
“My singing career came after I moved down south to play football in Bradford”, Pat told the Daily Record in 2013. “I used to sing in working men’s clubs around the Burnley area and I enjoyed it. One night, I was cheered on stage by a large group of lads from Dundee, who were down for a union conference and recognised me from my time at Dens Park.”
Local Dundee fans got to hear this for themselves at the Dundee FC Fortieth Anniversary Championship Dinner in 2002 at the Hilton Hotel, when Pat grabbed the microphone and led the assembled Dees in a chorus of, ‘Hail, Hail, The Dees are Here.’ Legends are made of such stuff!
For almost 20 years, Pat was a popular figure on a matchday at Dens and could always be seen chatting to fans outside the Club shop or in the hospitality lounges, often with a cup of tea or a cigar in hand. He has a supporters club named in his honour and in April 2011 was inducted in the Dundee FC Hall of Fame with a Legends Award; the first Dark Blue goalkeeper to be inducted and just four months later, was appointed as Honorary Club President, a position he took very seriously, was extremely proud to do and fulfilled with distinction.
He was a daily visitor to Dens to see the staff during the week after becoming President and regularly travelled on the team bus to away matches, Pat was unable to attend in recent months due to ill health, but it was fantastic to see him at the last home game for what would turn out to be one final time. We will miss him dearly!
The thoughts of everyone at the Kilmac Stadium are with Pat’s friends and family at this extremely sad time.
Honours at Dundee:
Scottish League Champions: 1961/62
Dundee FC Hall of Fame: 2011 Legends Award
Appearances:
League: 102
Scottish Cup: 3
League Cup: 16
Other: 5
Total: 126
