‘Club 12’ step up was too soon for Dee and Barry

2020 has seen SPFL wrangling like never before with Dundee thrust into the limelight during the spring voting saga.

It’s not the first time the Dens Parkers appeared front and centre during an almighty rammy amid Scottish football, however.

Rewind eight years and Barry Smith’s Dark Blues, a team ready for a shot at promotion from the First Division, were catapulted into the Scottish Premier League at the last minute after Rangers were booted out.

Dundee, having finished second the previous season in the second tier, would unexpectedly replace them but a rapid promotion didn’t turn out quite as welcome as it first seemed.

For Smith, it was another unique challenge for a relative rookie in the dugout. A club legend as a player, he cemented that reputation as a manager by leading the Deefiant team of 2010/11 to safety despite a 25-point penalty.

Just one year after that unprecedented challenge, Smith faced another ahead of the 2012/13 campaign.

The former Tele football writer said: “We were just coming out of administration and myself and chief executive Harry MacLean had a plan to get Dundee back in the Premier League within the next three years.

“The most important thing at that point was the club survived after administration, we did that and then looked at building a team to challenge for promotion and, beyond that, going up.

“So it was a three-year plan and we finished second in the second season which was an achievement in itself, just a year after administration.

“Then, about two weeks before the season started, we got the news we were going to be playing in the Premier League.”

On Monday, July 6, 2012, Dundee were invited to take the Club 12 place in the SPL, just 19 days before the new season was to begin and were only officially ratified as a top-flight side a day before the season kicked off.

“Just over two weeks isn’t a long time to prepare, particularly when you’ve built a team to win the First Division,” Smith added.

“It was a really forward-thinking team, one good enough to get us

Barry Smith kept Dundee up despite a 25-point penalty.