THE ORIGINAL BLACK SATURDAY

Mr A. CHALMERS, of Loons Road, Dundee, asked me for details of the Dundee and Dundee United line-ups from 1965-66 when the Tannadice side triumphed 5-0 at Dens Park in a league game.

It was, indeed, a “sair” one for those in dark blue, and many Dundee supporters of that era still refer to that game as “Black Saturday”.

There are other slightly-younger Dundee fans, though, who point to United’s league-title winning victory at Dens in 1983 as “Black Saturday”.

Certainly, I know of a few who went home that night, refused to speak to the wife, ignored the bairns, closed the curtains, locked the door and took the phone off the hook all weekend.

At the same time, the tangerine hoardes were partying the night away before making the pilgrimage to the City Square to greet their heroes.

Going back to Mr Chalmers query, I was at that game — the second league fixture of the season — and remember Dundee being unable to contain United’s Danish striker Finn Dossing, who ended up with a hat-trick.

Dennis Gillespie and another Scandinavian Lennart Wing (Swedish), from a penalty, netted the other goals.

United went into the game on a bit of a low, having been hammered 4-0 at home by Celtic the previous week.

In addition, Dundee were in United’s League Cup section and the Dens Parkers had recorded a win and a draw over their street neighbours in the previous couple of weeks.

However, United, playing in all-white and performing like Real Madrid, hit top form that day and the 5-0 victory set “The Terrors” off on an amazing six-game run, where, it seemed, they could not stop scoring goals.

Next up was St Johnstone at Tannadice, and they were beaten 5-1.

United then won 2-1 at Love Street against St Mirren, before Partick Thistle were also hit for five in a 5-2 home win.

A trip over the Tay saw Dunfermline beaten 4-2 at East End Park, before Hamilton Accies were blitzed 7-0 at Tannadice by Jerry Kerr’s free-scoring outfit.

Dossing scored at least one in every one of those games and, indeed, ended up with 27 goals that term, which included three hat-tricks (the other two both coming against Motherwell, home and away).

But, back to the original query, and United lined up against Dundee on September 11, 1965 — Mackay; Millar, Briggs; Neilson, Smith, Wing; Rooney, Munro, Dossing, Gillespie, Persson.

Dundee’s team was — Donaldson; Hamilton, Cox; Houston, Easton, Stuart; Bertelsen, Cousin, Cameron, Cooke, McLean.

Wearing No. 7 for United that day was Benny Rooney, and I spoke to him just recently.

The occasion was The Eagles concert at Hampden Park in June.

My wife and I had arranged to meet friends in the Queen’s Park Cafe, which is owned by Benny, and is situated at the end of Victoria Road, just across from one of the main gates of Queen’s Park.

He talked fondly of his time at United, mentioning the 5-0 game, and said he also knew of the sad passing of Dennis Gillespie.

However, he wasn’t aware that Ian Mitchell had died and was visibly shocked when informed.

BILL SHANKLY MADE ORDINARY PLAYERS INTO STARS

England’s failure in the recent World Cup in Germany was hardly surprising, according to TOM McGOVERN, a 72-year-old resident of Manchester, and one-time of Dundee.

Tom has spoken passionately on previous occasions to BwB on several aspects of “The Beautiful Game” and he feels he knows exactly why and where the home failings lie.

“Failure in the World Cup was a natural end to Sven Goran Eriksson’s reign,” said Tom.

“This was a reign which signified an inability to use good players effectively.

“England’s main problem is a prepondrence of foreign players in the Premiership who cannot play for them at international level.

“This also affects the emergence of young British talent.

“The only answer is to curb the present-day obsession with foreign players and coaches.

“This obsession is farcical.

“In the last four decades, the outstanding world-class managers have been British.

“In fact, they have all been Scottish — Bill Shankly, Jock Stein and Matt Busby — followed, of course, by Sir Alex Ferguson.

“The outstanding motivator of players was undoubtedly Bill Shankly.

“He convinced his players at Anfield that Liverpool were the best team in the world, filling them with self-belief.

“He was a man of the people and took ordinary players and made them into stars.

“No foreign coach has ever equalled the achievements of these British/Scottish managers, so why the obsession with them?

“The English FA have wasted around £20 million on a foreign manager.

“Alex Ferguson is the only coach whose home-grown football talent is equal in ability and value to any foreign imports.

“Even Chelsea’s coach Jose Mourinho learned his trade from a British manager, Bobby Robson.

“It seems that other countries value our managers more than we do.

“Conversely, we value their players more than our own. Some earn twice as much as their British team-mates.

“This wage differential should be scrapped and a limit placed upon the amount of foreign players any club can sign. The object would be to encourage home-grown talent.

“No foreign import has thrilled me more than three British players, i.e. Stan Matthews, Tom Finney and Jimmy Johnstone.

“Talent such as theirs is ageless. They deserve the same respect as Pele and other greats.

“I respect some foreigners, but I am not obsessed with them.”

IT’S STILL A DARK, BLACK TIME AT DENS

Last Friday, I wrote of the “dark cloud” which settled over Dens Park after the back-to-back defeats by Partick Thistle.

However, after further reversals against Hamilton Accies and Forfar Athletic in the past week, the “dark” is now distinctly black — the same colour as the mood of their long-suffering supporters.