From Out of Darkness Cometh Light
It's too easy to criticise in hindsight. The media are the biggest culprits at this sort of trick, and I don't criticise my Gods easily. But I believe a wrong decision was taken at this point. Whilst other teams players were told to go home and have time off with their families during the 3 week break, Ivano took his lads back to the hills of Italy for training. Instead of having the effect he obviously hoped for, they returned to the campaign in worse shape than ever. The morale was low, the heads seemed to go down and we had a disastrous start to the year.
Beginning with undoubtedly our poorest performance of the season against Dundee United at Dens on the 31st January, we see our dreams evaporate with 5 league defeats on the trot. Young Davidson rose unchallenged to bullet a header home in the 34th minute to give the Arabs a deserved lead. This was cancelled out by CLAUDIO CANIGGIA, forcing home a low Artero cross from the right to give us our one dee-light of the game. But the second half is all United, who fought for every ball, played an adventurous attacking game and thoroughly deserved their win. (I'm choking even now). When Easton gave his side the lead and with time running out Lauchlan put the game beyond doubt after some joke defending. This time it was the turn of many of the Dees fans to make a hasty exit. They missed a neat WILLIE FALCONER header with two minutes to go, but the game was over by this time.
On the 4th February we travel to Love Street with hopes high, but once again despair as we tumble to defeat against a very ordinary St Mirren side. When JUAN SARA opened the scoring early on in a period when Dundee dominated the match, we looked likely to win at a canter. His goal was a splendidly hit overhead kick but he was booked for showing his message of love and peace to the Paisely fans. Shortly after a clearance hits him on the arm and referee Somers, evidently a member of some satanic sect, sent him off. Not a foul committed by big Juan, a booking for preaching peace to all men and another for the ball striking his arm.
From then on St Mirren upped the pace against the 10 men and before half time Rocatti fails to come off his line to defend a simple corner kick and Rudden stabbed home the simplest of chances. With time running out and the 10 man Dundee looking most likely to grab the winner French trialist Dagnogo pounced to give his side 3 precious points in the relegation battle. Another three points tossed away.
The 21st February saw a very uninspiring match against Dunfermline, with the battling Pars winning with the only goal of the game by a Nicholson shot that took a wicked deflection off Marroco and spun past Rocatti in goal.
The run of defeats got worse and worse when we play Rangers off the park on February 24th, miss two penalties and lose to a late Konterman free kick totally against the run of play. Juan Sara is the sinner here in a match that was there for the taking, but whether we liked it or not we had now lost 5 league games on the trot and had fallen to 8th in the league. The doom and gloom brigade had us all ready to collapse completely and join in the relegation battle at the bottom.
From Out of Darkness Cometh Light. If ever we needed some proof of these words it was now. And just as despair began to settle among some of the fans the Light began to shine again. To be honest I never doubted, even during this darkest time of the season. I always had faith, the lads were still playing silky football, the luck and the breaks weren't always on our side, but we'd win through in the end.
On the 3rd March we stopped the rot with a great display against St Johnstone down in Perth, winning 3-2 after trailing to an early goal. My old mate, Linlathen lad and hero of the Dundee fans, (not), Gary Bollan fired his side into the lead from a free kick, and it was suddenly looking like 6 in a row wasn't out of the question. But gutsy GAVIN RAE showed the way with a stunning equaliser that rocketed into the roof of the net, surely the best goal Gav has ever scored for the club. This was followed by a neat pirouette by JUAN SARA who took a loose ball on the half volley to give the Dees the lead.
Then Di Marchi who was looking very reckless, upended Hartley and gifted Saints the equaliser from the spot. The sting in the Dark Blue tail showed with not long to go when JAVIER ARTERO took the ball off the toes of Bollan before drilling the most perfect of finishes past Main for a glorious deserved three points.
The heads were up and the Dees were back in town and they followed up their McDiarmid mauling by beating none other than Rangers at Ibrox, not by a lucky goal as they had done at Dens, but with 2 quality finishes that had them floundering. When Smith and Artero combined to put CLAUDIO CANIGGIA clear in the box his stunning shot from a tight angle flew inside the near post, leaving Klos bewildered and well beaten. These points were vital to our reaching the coveted 6th top spot but they came at a price. Rangers knew now we had a player of quality, a superstar who wasn't as they had suspected, or read in the Daily Rangers, finished. No one beats Klos at the near post. Rangers huffed and puffed to try to find the equaliser but with the game in stoppage time a fine Del Rio cross from the right finds STEVEN MILNE in the clear and the wee man stoops to conquer with a neat header that beat Klos.
The 19th March and that old failing, our inability to string 3 games in a row, came to haunt us in a 0-0 draw with Hearts at Dens. Whether Uri Geller can be persuaded to be a Dundee fan, I cannot say, but we need someone to tell these guys how great they really are. 2 brilliant away wins and we fail to score at Dens against a very ordinary looking Hearts side that night. We miss too many chances and in the end the result is about right.
Roll on the 31st March, and I am hospitalised with a broken leg as my team face Killie at Dens. Listening to a match on radio is one of life's hellish situations. Especially if it's your own team and you know you would have been there, if only.. Listening in a lonely side ward seemed to make it even worse.
I wanted to be there, so much and so badly, but I had to make do with the hospital radio service. They do their best, but it was obvious these guys were more interested in United's away match where they beat Rangers, than the game they were supposed to be covering. When Dargo scored the opener the leg began to hurt something awful. When Carranza sent JUAN SARA clear with the most amazing of passes, and the big man scored, the pain miraculously left me, and several nurses ran in when they heard my roars of delight, which they thought must have been much more serious. They closed the door, shaking their heads, unable to understand that Dundee are much more to me than a mere broken limb. When GAVIN RAE put Dundee into the lead my exploits of jumping about, arms raised were repeated, this time without the emergency services and the oxygen being called in. Then disaster came when Mahood scored to the seeming delight of the commentators who made Dick Donnelly seem like a real bluenose.
Wednesday night, 5th March, still in Ninewells, and worse, no match commentary from Celtic Park as we take on the champions. The DJ, who at least sounded like a Dees fan, gave regular updates between every 5 records he played. When he annouces Tommy Johnston had give the Celts the lead I can't take it anymore and move to the smoke room to have a fag or 5 and a wee swallae from the sneaked in cans of Millers Lager. When I return it's 1-1, JUAN SARA had equalised. 5 records later Celtic had pounced again, to win 2-1, and Smith had been red carded. Oh, the woes and the misery. To be fair this DJ sounded as down as I was, and at least I felt there was someone who cared out there.
I got out on the Friday night, Dundee played Aberdeen at Pittodrie the next day, but although the spirit was willing I decided against driving all the way to Aberdeen with a big stookie on my right leg, much to the disgust of my wheelchair pusher, young Andy. "You can only break it again. What difference could that make?" was all the sympathy I got.
Once again, listening, though this time at home, I knew I was as one with the thousands of Dees all over the world who have to do this each game, tuning in to Radio Scotland to hear the fate of their beloved team. And what a wonderful day that turned out to be. The way we played Aberdeen off the park, only to hear that Killie were beating Dunfermline 2-1, though the Pars were attacking all the time. I turned to that game, tuning in on the Internet and when that final whistle went the neighbours must have thought I'd been in Liff and not Ninewells, with all the thumping of sticks on the walls, the yells of defiant bravado. "Wha's like us, we're there." We've made top 6, Ivano's dream in his first season. That was a nice ending to a week that had been Hell up to now. NEMSADZE and CABALLERO had struck gold with 2 superb efforts, that was all that mattered, that and Killies win over Dunfy.
But football, as I've said, is a cruel game. In the midst of such joy and elation that the Arabs couldn't understand, though they were to repeat if after finishing 11th, there was also despair. It was about then we began to hear the news filter in that we had all been dreading. The Bird was leaving. At first, stunned disbelief, then as realisation sets in two different reactions are felt. Those who felt it was better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all, blessed the fact that the man had played here and were profoundly thankful that they had glimpsed El Pajaro for a short but glorious reign at Dens. Others felt betrayed and said good riddance, though I defy them to say they never felt a wee lump in their throat as well. I was of the former persuasion and felt so grateful that I had seen week in, week out, a true master at work. Farewell, Claudio Caniggia, never forgotten, like a visiting God from another planet, you enthralled me and many others with your magnificent skills and I will never forget you until the day comes when I have to meet your equal, the big Chairman on the high throne of Heaven.
The last 5 matches, to be played in Series A of the SPL were perhaps overshadowed by the great feats of the wee team's splendid fight to avoid relegation from the Series B section, but they can write their own stories. This is my Dundee dream, my story, and the amazing thing is it's all true.
The 3-0 defeat from the Gers at Dens on the 21st April, every goal the result of bad defending, sees a few young Dundee fans throw their scarves away as they walked out, to the derision of the Dundee faithful. I have a little more sympathy for them. They're young, too young to remember the great days so they have little to make comparisons with. How much they deserve to see a cup with dark blue ribbons on it, and they will one day, I'm sure of it.
This is followed up by another terrible result as we go down 2-0 to Hibs on the 29th April in a game in which we look so disinterested that the game is a non event from kick off. Reaching the target seemed to be enough for the first season.
But on the 5th May comes our first win at Dens this year when we down Killie 2-1 with goals from JUAN SARA and BETO CARRANZA, the latter from the penalty spot after he and Fab had wrestled the ball from the big man's grasp in true school playground fashion. Couldn't have a repeat of the Rangers match, and despite the surrealistic sense of having to do this, all are grateful to the great Juan's countrymen and the run at home is broken.
Then it's on to the unlucky for some, 13th May, when we face the champions Celtic at Parkhead, and in a stunning performance, with 2 goals by FAB CAB, which no doubt will ensure his name is pencilled into someone's notebook at Ibrox or Parkhead, we beat the Celts 2-0, with only 10 men on the park. The Sun, love them or loathe them, did us proud the next day with a heading of "Dundee - applauded the champions on the park - then played them off it."
Then it was on to our last league game of the season against Hearts at Tynecastle on Sunday, 20th May. For the record we lost 2-0 and to many this will be seen as a nothing match. No, they were wrong. The 2,500 who travelled through that day were attending a Church service. We didn't know we were in for a religious experience, but all who were there that day will agree with me this was more than a football fan's applause. This was a chance for the real true blues to end the season on a high note and let the management, the players and everyone connected with FC Dundee that we were behind them every step of the long, hard struggle to regain our rightful spot among the elite of Scottish football. And when one unknown small band of fans, God bless them, began to chant the tribute to "Ivano, Dario", it took a wee while before the others joined in. But the lump was growing in my throat as I heard it and suddenly it became an uncontrollable urge to let the world know! how great it was to be a Dee. Suddenly the entire Dundee support became like one body, and this is as close to Heaven as we mortals can travel in this lifetime.
There are, as I've said at the beginning, some things that can't be put down in writing and this was one of them. No words exist in the English language, to explain or describe these feelings. This was the Dees in unison, it was two and a half thousand souls of varying ages and sexes, all with the same dreams, the same loves, the same adulation for a team they had watched in appreciation all season. It was also a cleansing process. We sang out all the disappointments, all the quirks of fortunes we had experienced. It was a call to Ivano, to Dario, to everyone connected with the club that we are happy and delighted with the progress made so far. It was also a plea to them all to "take us to the promised land" we live out in our fantasies. Because of the football on display our "young men have had dreams, our old men have had visions." We dearly want them to become reality.
And now we look ahead to season 2001-2002, the second year of the Bonetti revolution. And with that I look to the players we still have, and with a backward glance, maybe tearful as well, at the God Caniggia's reluctance to at least give us another season of his glorious reign. Here are a few if of my dreams for next season:-
Zura, you have the distinction of being perhaps the next Dark Blue God, and the brief sightings of you so far have done nothing to dispel this belief. Go on to establish yourself at Dens and become the world superstar you promise to be. Giorgi, not a dribbler, more of a dancer with your incredulous skills and ball control. I pray for consistency and recognition that you are one of the most gifted players in the whole of Scotland. Gavin, don't settle for one cap, that's just the beginning of many in a career that will take you to the very top of your profession. Beto Carranza, I confess to being one of my favourites, the master of the wee back heelers and nutmegs, who can spin on a tanner, turn an opponent inside out with a mesmerizing run of incredible artistry, Argentinian, yes, but so reminiscent of the old time Scottish ball players of yesteryear. Football's universal and its language knows no regional barriers. With a ball at your feet, we all speak Spanish.
Javier, to be able to ignore the dafties, and play like we all know you can. Juan, learn that Jesus is a Dundee fan as well and score the easy ones as well and become Scotland's top scorer next season. Fabian, like me you must have had to put up with hospital radio for a while. I pray you get back to full fitness and if you do you'll be knocking on the Argentine Manager's door next season. Time and space doesn't permit me to mention everyone of our magnificent pool of players. Let me end by wishing all the very best of luck for next season. In the words of my favourite author, Charles Dickens:- "God bless them, every one."
p.s. I haven't mentioned any of the Cup games, covering the league matches was a big enough task in itself. I have fond memories of Caballero's brilliant free kick against Montrose, a great night out in Falkirk and the two Hearts matches, home and away, I may try and write about them later to fill in the gaps.