Dundee travel to Dingwall on Boxing Day to face Ross County and so we take a look at the career of Sean Higgins who played for both clubs; a Dee-Fiant hero at Dens where he won the ALBA Cup and also played in two Challenge Cup Final with The Staggies.
Sean Higgins was born in Glasgow on October 29th 1984 and is a midfielder / striker who started his football career at Hamilton where he played at youth level before moving to Ross County in 2002. He made his debut for County on October 19th in a 3-0 First Division win over Arbroath at Victoria Park and scored his first senior goal at home to Ayr United on the last day of that season.
Higgins spent seven years in the Highlands where he scored 56 goals in 209 appearances across the First and Second Divisons and in his third season played in the Bell’s Challenge Cup Final against Falkirk at McDiarmid Park. Despite County taking the lead midway through the second half, Higgins finished on the losing side after Falkirk scored two late goals and he got his second runners-up medal in 2008 when Airdrie United won the trophy on penalties in Perth after a 2-2 draw despite Sean scoring his spot kick.
In between times Ross County won the Challenge Cup in 2006 with a penalty shoot-out victory over Clyde in 2006 after a 1-1 draw but Higgins missed out through injury but he would finally get his hands on the trophy when he moved to Dens.
In the summer of 2009 Sean Higgins signed for Dundee after manager Jocky Scott had been impressed with him as he scored on The Dee’s last visit to Dingwall and he scored on his Dark Blues debut in a 5-0 League Cup home win over Stranraer and again the following week in his first league game with the only goal of the game against Morton at Dens.
In November Sean got his Challenge Cup winners medal when he was part of the Dundee side to win it at McDiarmid Park against his old Highland rivals Inverness Caledonian Thistle. Higgins scored in the 3-0 semi-final win over Annan at Dens and started the Final but at half time the Dark Blues found themselves 2-0 down.
However a Bulvitis own goal three minutes into the second half brought Dundee back into the game and they turned the game on its head with goals from Harkins and Forsyth to win the cup now sponsored by BBC Gaelic channel ALBA.
Eleven months later Dundee tragically lurched into administration for a second time and Higgins was one of the lucky ones to keep his job after 13 staff were made redundant. Sean became a key component of the Dee-Fiant side, successfully overcoming the draconian 25-point penalty from the Scottish League and stepped up to the plate to become the main goal threat after the departure of Leigh Griffiths to Wolves in January.
In the first home game after administration against Dunfermline Sean scored his first of the season to earn Dundee a 2-2 draw. The Dee were 2-0 down at half time but the seeds of the Dee-Fiant attitude were sown when Leigh Griffiths pulled one back three minutes into the second half and when Higgins scored with nine minutes left, Dens Park went mental and the noise nearly lifted the roof off of the South Enclosure.
Sean scored again the following week in a pulsating 3-3 draw away at Falkirk and when his next goal was the winner against Queen of the South at Palmerston in February, it was enough to lift The Dee off the bottom of the league.
Higgins then went on a remarkable run of seven goals in nine games (including a spectacular scissors kick at Starks Park) and his goal in the 2-1 win over Queen of the South at Dens on March 12th helped set a new club record of 20 league games undefeated which would eventually be stretched to 23; eclipsing the record of 19 set by the Championship winners of 1962.
Sean very nearly didn’t play in that historic game but like so many of the Dee-Fiant heroes, played through the pain barrier with squad numbers being thin on the ground.
Sean was a doubt before the game, as was the match itself but despite the flurry of snow in the morning, the game went ahead in front of 4242 eager fans who were treated to a magnificent match. Dundee served up a feast of football as they came from behind to beat Queen of the South after ex-Dee Colin McMenamin gave The Doonhamers a first half lead after 30 minutes. ??It stayed like that until the 65th minute when the best move of the match resulted in Sean Higgins curling the ball home from the edge of the box to put Dundee back on level terms and bizarrely, club secretary Laura Hayes could claim an assist for the goal that made sure the record would be broken.??Higgins had been struggling badly with a foot injury and Neil McCann, who returned to the side for his third game as a trialist, told him that when he had played for Rangers some players with similar injuries had wrapped a steak round their injury and played with it inside their boot. Laura therefore walked up Main Street and paid £1.49 out of her own pocket for a minute steak from butchers Yorkes of Dundee and Sean celebrated his goal by mimicking eating his foot with a knife and fork.??From that moment on there was only one team in the match and with Dundee hungry for more they pushed forward and got their reward when O’Donnell’s peach of a shot crashed off the underside of the bar and Forsyth reacted first to head home to put the icing on the cake.
Unfortunately for Sean it was his last game of the season as the injury prevented him turning out again but he made more than played his part in Dundee’s survival.
It also turned out to be his last game for Dundee as he jumped at the chance in the summer for a crack at the SPL with St Johnstone. It didn’t quite work out in Perth where he played only six league games and after a loan spell at Ayr United towards the end of the season, he signed for Falkirk on deadline day on August 2012.
After a season at the Falkirk Stadium, Higgins moved across Stirlingshire to sign for Stenhousemuir in the summer of 2013 where he became a main stay in the team that narrowly missed out on the play offs. He scored a double in a 3-3 draw with Rangers at Ibrox and returned to Dens in September and scored in the 1-1 draw in the Challenge Cup. The Warriors won the tie on penalties but Sean refused to celebrate his goal as a mark of respect for the club with whom he had been through so much.
In the summer of 2014 Higgins joined Cowdenbeath to replace the departing Greg Stewart and Kane Hemmings who are both now at Dens and scored 7 goals in 37 appearances for the Blue Brazil.
After just a year in Fife, Higgins signed for Clyde and made his debut away to Livingston in the Challenge Cup and scored his first goals for The Bully Wee with a double against East Stirlingshire at the end of August.
Higgins was a popular player at both Dens and Victoria Park and at Dundee made his mark in an incredible season for which the fans will always be grateful.
Honours at Dundee:
ALBA Scottish League Challenge Cup winners: 2009/10
Appearances, Goals:
League: 34 + 18 subs, 14 goals
Scottish Cup: 2
League Cup: 3, 1 goal
Challenge Cup: 3 + 1 sub, 2 goals
Totals: 61, 17 goals
