Dicker keen back where

IF Fulham get back to the Premier League by beating Aston Villa in tomorrow’s Championship play-off final at Wembley, Kevin McDonald will be back where he should have spent most of his career.

That’s the verdict of the mercurial midfielder’s former Dundee team-mate Paul Dixon.

As teenagers over a decade ago Dixon and McDonald were thrust into the first team as the Dark Blues continued their struggle to bounce back from administration in 2003.

After three years together, the pair left Dens Park within a few weeks of each other in the summer of 2008, Dixon to city rivals Dundee United and McDonald for Burnley.

Within a year of heading south, the latter was playing top-flight football with the Clarets and “Dicker” admits to thinking at the time that whether or not the Turf Moor outfit would stay at that level, his mate would.

After an infamous incident that saw McDonald leave the ground after being substituted at half-time during a 6-1 home defeat at the hands of Manchester City, what had been a promising start to his career down south faded for a time.

He played just one more top-tier game that season and has not performed at that level in just over eight years since. That still amazes Dixon.

“Honestly, knowing Kev’s talent when he went down to Burnley and got promoted to the Premier League, I expected him to do what Virgil van Dijk and Andy Robertson have,” he said.

“I was sure it would be a stepping stone to one of the top-six clubs down there because that is the kind of ability he has.

“He was thrown in at the deep end at Dundee, like a few of us were, but he quickly became a very big player in the team and it wasn’t a surprise when English clubs started watching him every week.

“Burnley seemed a good move for him because he was getting a game and they got promoted but something went wrong and it knocked him back for a while.

“What exactly the story was I don’t know and maybe we never will, but for me the good thing is he is back in with a chance of getting up to the highest level again.

Paul Dixon and Kevin McDonald (right) were team-mates at Dundee. Kevin McDonald was held in high esteem from an early age at Dundee. He’s