Famous for ever in Dundee

Tomorrow, Saturday, 28th April, represents the Golden Anniversary of a golden day in Dundee Football Club’s history as Bob Shankly’s side were crowned League Champions of Scotland.  The Dark Blues won the First Division Championship, then the top League prize, with a 3-0 win at St. Johnstone’s former home of Muirton Park.

Over 26,000 fans crammed into Muirton Park and the SFL Newsletter tracked down two people that were present that day – one of them on the pitch and the other who stood on the terracing.

Dundee’s 1961/62 League Championship winning goalkeeper Pat Liney said: “I remember it like it was yesterday especially as our triumph was so unexpected.  If you had said to me at the start of the season that we would be top four or five then we would have settled for that.

“We started the season not expected to win the League and we also did not do too well in the League Cup sections that opened the season.  There was no big thing that just happened, we clicked together and with Rangers two points behind, we ended up at St. Johnstone needing a point to win the League.”

A point would also have been enough for St. Johnstone to remain in the First Division under the old goal average system however, Liney never allowed that thought to enter his head.

He said: “We needed a draw but we could not play for a draw.  Can you imagine if I had fumbled a shot in by accident?  We were on a crest of a wave and we went for it.  St. Johnstone were a bit heavy handed to begin with as they tried to take our playmaker Gordon Smith out of the game.

“Things settled down and Gordon crossed for Alan Gilzean to score and then Alan scored again.  Andy Penman scored the third and it is no exaggeration to say that they were three great goals.

“The fact that nothing was expected of us helped in our challenge,” said Liney before adding, “We were able to treat it like any other game but looking back, we were really in the groove by then.  We recovered after the League Cup sections and had a wee dip and then came roaring back.”

Liney was a west coast boy loving life in the east coast as he said: “I was born in Paisley and lived in Linwood when it was still a village.  I was a wee quiet lad and had hardly been out of Linwood before I did my National Service.

“I went to Dundee to follow in the footsteps of Bill Brown who was the best goalkeeper in Europe.  I played there for nearly four years and really enjoyed it.”

There was a real camaraderie at Dens Park with Liney saying: “There were seven of us in the one big house in Roseangle.  There were students there as well and Betty Golding and her husband looked after us really well.

“We lived together, played football together, went to the dancing together and became great friends together.”

Whilst Smith, Gilzean and Penman grabbed the headlines at Perth, it was Liney who was the hero against St. Mirren in their penultimate game with a penalty save and the shot-stopper recalls: “Gordon said to me after I had saved that spot-kick that I will be famous for ever in Dundee if we went on and won the League.  It has turned out to be true as no matter where I am nowadays, I meet Dundee people who remember me for that.

“The fans are still great with all of the players that were part of that team and sometimes they know more about us than we do.”

Unfortunately for Liney, the start of the next season was tinged with a little sadness as he explained: “We were going to be in the European Cup and the only goalkeepers at the club were myself and young Ally Donaldson.  The Manager brought in Bert Slater from Liverpool and he took my place. 

"When the League Flag was raised at the start of the following season, I was watching it from the Stand.  I was annoyed at the time but it has been long forgotten about and the fans have always helped me get over it.”

Liney returned west to join St. Mirren and he said: “They were my local team when I was growing up but they were part-time so I did their Football Pools for them.  At that time, most players retired at the age of 30 but when I turned 30, I was given the chance to join Bradford.

“The former Hibs' Manager Walter Galbraith took me there for a year so I rented out my house in Dundee but I ended up staying until I was 39!”

Liney will be able to show off the two winners’ medals he possesses for his part in the Dens Park club’s success when the surviving members of the triumphant Championship winning squad meet this Sunday for a Dinner to mark the fiftieth anniversary of their achievement.

Liney holds his original medal and a replacement that his son arranged for his sixtieth birthday after the first one disappeared in mysterious circumstances before re-appearing in an auction some 15 years later.

Liney explained: “I moved house in 1980 and I remember the furniture removers being impressed when I placed my medal in a cabinet in my new house so I knew I brought it with me.  A few weeks later, it was gone and at the same time, I had some items taking from an out-house so I presumed it was part of the same incident.

“As you can imagine, it was pretty heartbreaking but my son liaised, behind my back I may add, with the SFL to get a new one for my sixtieth birthday.  They are not cheap and not easy to get but he did it for me which was a wonderful gesture.”

The now 75-year-old added: “I never thought much more about it until I read an advert from an auction house about five or six years ago advertising that it was selling Pat Liney’s Championship winning medal.  I got in touch with them and they asked me to describe it and I told them about the blue box and the satin it sat in and also that my son had put a mark on it with a biro pen when he was young.

“That was the one they had so it never went into the sale and I got it back.  They contacted the seller who said it was found in a house that he moved into at Kilbarchan in 1972 which was quite strange as I had it eight years later.”

Liney added: “Nothing was ever proven but I was reunited with my first medal and since then, I have kept the two very carefully.”

It promises to be an emotional weekend for Liney as he said: “Every time we get together, it seems there is someone else missing.  The sense of humour between us remains as Ian Ure and I have a bet on about who the last man standing will be.  Ian is younger than me so he is in with a chance.

“I live in between Dundee and Perth and Bobby Smith is in Monifieth with Ally Donaldson nearby as well and we meet up when we can.  Bobby Wishart, Bobby Seith, Alan Cousin and Alan Gilzean will all be at this Dinner as will Bobby Waddell and Craig Brown and Laurie Smith who was our physio.”

Liney continued: “I have been told that George McGeachie cannot make it but Alex Hamilton, Bobby Cox, Gordon, Andy and Hugh Robertson are no longer with us but they will be there in spirit.  I am really looking forward to the night.”

The former goalkeeper remains a Dark Blue at heart and he praised Barry Smith’s present day side saying: “I think what they did last season was incredible and better than our achievement.  We had no pressure on us but they had pressure from being in Administration and trying to avoid relegation.  They deserve a lot of credit for fighting back in the manner that they did.”

A good friend of The Scottish Football League, Dundee fan Ronnie McIntosh, who presented The Scottish Communities League Cup to Kilmarnock when they defeated Celtic last month, remembers his trip to Perth to watch his heroes compete for the title 50 years ago.

McIntosh said: “I was a 12-year-old from a farm in Auchterhouse and I was with a group of pals that went through on a bus to Perth.  It started off as a hot day, well into the 60’s, and we all had a sense of anticipation.

“I was always a Dundee fan and had been to a few games that season and I was not going to miss such an important game.  It was actually quite a daunting experience once I got into the ground.  There were over 26,000 people at the game, there was little room and it was actually quite scary with the noise and the movement that was going on.”

McIntosh continued: “We needed a draw to win the League and they needed a draw to avoid relegation and there were loads of rumours that the result was pre-determined.  I remember Dundee in their dark blue and St. Johnstone in their white jerseys with blue numbers and, of course, a little known fact is that Sir Alex Ferguson was playing for St. Johnstone that day.”

Another fear for McIntosh that say was the fitness of Smith as he explained: “Gordon came out with his leg heavily bandaged.  He was 37 which seemed ancient then and I was worried that he could not play which I thought would be a disaster as he was the main man.”

St. Johnstone did little to ease McIntosh's fears as he explained: “He got a lot of rough treatment and I am sure one of them may have been booked for a foul on him.”

The nerves eased with McIntosh saying: “Gilzean scored in the first half and he scored from a cross from the right from Gordon Smith.  It was his usual inch perfect delivery and ‘Gillie’ was amazing in the air.”

That hero worship floored Gilzean recently with McIntosh explaining: “I attended Muirhead of Liff Secondary School and I had to travel along the main road to Coupar Angus to get there.  Alan Gilzean would pass us every day at that time in his bright yellow Volkswagen Beetle with the registration plate of TES 178 and we would wave to him.

“I met him a couple of months ago in the Dens Park Boardroom.  I reminded him of that car and he looked astonished that I could remember it.  I idolised him and the rest of the team to be honest.

“He went on to play for Tottenham Hotspur from 1964 until the mid-1970s and their fans loved him as well.  They gave Gilzean the credit for making Jimmy Greaves the great player he was.  He also helped make Martin Chivers a star due to his legendary lay-offs with either foot, or better still, those deadly head flicks.”

McIntosh continued: “The famous England goalkeeper Gordon Banks always maintains that he never ever played against anyone, other than Gilzean, who was capable of jumping the heights that he was capable of.”

With the match 50 years ago entering the final half hour, Gilzean added a second and seven minutes later, Penman scored the third to ease the nerves of the 20,000 or so Dundee fans that had travelled to Perth.

McIntosh recalls: “All I can remember at the final whistle is that basically, the place went berserk and the fans piled onto the pitch.  I could not get on as I was not big enough and in reality, it was a fantastic and scary experience at the same time.

“I do remember feeling sorry for St. Johnstone and to go down on goal average must have been hard for them.  We travelled home on an Alexanders' bus along the old A92 and went through places like Invergowrie, Longforgan and Inchture and it seemed like a real chore after what we had just witnessed.  In those days, the double decker buses were open at the back to let you on and off and the weather had turned and it was really cold but I am pretty sure that did not trouble me too much.”

McIntosh, The Sunday Mail and sportscotland Disability Sports Award winner for 2011, is now firm friends with Liney and he found out that Dens Park is not the only ground where he is warmly remembered.

“I get my artificial limbs made in Bradford,” said McIntosh before adding, “And Pat played down there for both Bradford City and Bradford Park Avenue.  He arranged for me to get shown round Valley Parade when I was down one time and it was good to hear how well he played for Bradford as well.”

McIntosh spoke about other members of the famous Dark Blues' squad saying: “Andy Penman was another great player.  He had broken his leg as a youngster at Chelsea and came back and played for Dundee when he was 15.  He scored that day and was a brilliant player.  His brother Jim was the President of the Hawkhill Harriers club I was the Vice-President at and he arranged for me to meet Andy before he passed away.

“He had the world at his feet and was great in the European run the next season.  I also used to meet Bobby Seith on the sea front at Monifieth and it has been great to meet so many of these players but unfortunately, I never met Bobby Wishart.”

McIntosh does have one regret from that era saying: “They are without doubt the greatest Dundee side of all time and I would have loved them to have met the Celtic team of 1967 that won the European Cup.  That would have been some game full of characters that were prevalent in Scottish football at that time.

“I regard myself as being so very lucky indeed to live through and witness an era of Scottish football in the 1960s which, quite sadly, will never return.  Every team in the old Scottish First Division in those days seemed to ooze talent and that made Dundee's League Championship win even more incredible.”

McIntosh will be at the Caird Hall this weekend and he will also have a starring role the following weekend when he presents this season’s Player of the Year Award on behalf of Dundee’s Disability Supporters Club.

A further starring role will see him carry the Olympic Torch on Tuesday, 12th June but whatever happens that day, the memory of 28th  April, 1962 will still burn long in McIntosh’s mind.

Dundee’s Commercial Manager, Verity Tynan, added: “The Dinner to honour the 1962 League Championship squad’s achievements was sold out within days of it being organised last autumn.  There will be over 600 people there and we sold tickets to fans in China and Ghana and that also shows the high esteem the team was held in.

“We are sure it will be a fantastic night.”