An Inter-Toto waste of time

Dundee 0
Sartid 0

Never mind the embarrassment of Scottish clubs being out of Europe by Christmas, on this showing Dundee will be lucky if they're still hanging in there come the start of the SPL season.

Ivano Bonetti may have sparked a Dens Park revolution when he arrived on Tayside a year ago and tempted the club to try entry into Europe via the back door marked Inter-Toto Cup but with an inept display minus most, nay all, the flair they wooed the fans and the neutrals with last term his team proved why it has been 27 years since the Dark Blues were last in Europe.

Even the fans weren't convinced. The air of excitement that had rippled through the queues waiting outside the ground prior to kick-off dissipated throughout the first half as it dawned on them that like players with foreign names, teams from abroad don't necessarily serve up fare superior to that delivered up by Scottish sides.

It was a rude shock to many that watching Dundee v Sartid in the Inter-Toto Cup is not quite the same as watching Real Madrid v Bayern Munich.

"It's like watching a game against Kilmarnock," grumbled one fan. Except Bobby Williamson's men are probably better than Sartid.

Minus fans' favourites like the now departed Claudio Caniggia, Georgian's Giorgi Nemsadze and Zura Khizanishvilli, who were on extended leave after international duty, as well as Beto Carranza, who is awaiting the birth of his baby, Dundee's foreign legion looked rusty, lacklustre and lacking in ideas.

The fact that the bumbling Juan Sara was ploughing a lonely furrow up front hardly helped the cause. Living proofthat being born in Argentina doesn't make you a great player, his clumsiness and inability to beat the offside trap was cringe worthy at times and did little to portray Dundee as a team capable of progressing in this tournament, let along march onwards into the UEFA Cup.

But while Dundee were bad, their Yugoslavian visitors were no better and between them they could not muster even one decent goal attempt in the first half.

Dundee's Mark Robertson was the first to test the Sartid rearguard but although he darted in amongst the defenders, skipping past a couple of them on the edge of the box in the second minute, the final shot was missing.

A few minutes later Nemad Mircsavijevic indicated he would be the dangerman up front for Sartid but having got himself into a decent position, his dig was weak. The same player had another effort later on in that half but it was lashed wide, while Javier Artero, who was one of the few to gain passmarks, and Alberto Garrido, squandered chances for Dundee.

In a bid to shake things up Bonetti switched Robertson for Steven Milne at the start of the second half. However, the men who enjoyed most of the action during the second 45 minutes was the first aid men with the stretcher. There will be at least a few opposition managers and players smirking up their sleeves at the histrionics and play-acting of the Yugoslavians. It is a tactic the Dens Park players were, at times, accused of adopting themselves throughout last season.

The unsporting play of the side from Smederevo succeeded in turning the second period into an absolute farce. The first half's football may not have been captivating but at least it bore some resemblance to the sport the punters had paid to watch. With time ticking away and seemingly happy to leave Scotland with a goalless stalemate, the visitors seemed more intent on honing their diving skills. Unfortunately for the crowd, Norwegian referee Tommy Skjerven was easily duped. Time and time again Sartid players went down as though felled by a bulldozer, writhing and wriggling until the referee relented and called on the stretcher. Every time they were hardly off the pitch before they were jumping off and screaming to be allowed back into the fray.

As the number of Oscar-winning performances reached double figures, the fans were making it well known that their behaviour was far from appreciated. The Dundee players were also growing increasingly agitated, to the extent that Alessandro Romano grabbed the ankles of one prostrate figure and started dragging him off the pitch before the referee intervened and the stretcher made yet another appearance.

It was a shameful show and their negativity could yet cost them. Dundee now travel to the town just 30 miles outside Belgrade next weekend, knowing that a score draw and the crucial away goal, would send them threw to face 1860 Munich in the next round.

If they are to do that, they will need men like Fabian Caballero to be at his best. The compact entertainer came off the substitutes' bench and at first it seemed the raptuous applause was down to the fact his entry signalled the end of Sara's match but in fact the fans simply recognised him as someone capable of turning the game. He tried, as did Bonetti, when he joined him on the park late on but neither could find their way through, largely, if we are being charitable to the Dens Park side, due to the stop-start nature of the game, which resulted in seven extra minutes being added on.

In truth, for real football fans that was seven minutes too much because if this was supposed to remind us what we have been missing in the three weeks since the season ended and leave us desperate for the restart, it failed dismally.

Moira Gordon at Dens Park
Sunday, 17th June 2001
Scotland on Sunday