The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Late goal pre-empted a raging storm
Rewrite nothing compared to Covid-19 outbreak
Iwalked out of Dens Park at about 10.30pm that Tuesday night, desperate to get back to the car, stick the heater on full blast and warm myself up. Work was over for the evening of March 10, with a line drawn under Dundee’s fine 2-0 win over Ayr United apart from a follow-up story on stoppage-time scorer Olly Crankshaw that could wait until the morning.
Little did I know, as I shivered back to the car park, that it would be the last time I reported on a match for who knows how long.
Making their own way out of the stadium after me were the Dark Blues players, manager James Mcpake and managing director John Nelms, gladdened by an excellent result on the park.
Little did they, or I, think that there was not just a dark cloud looming but a raging storm.
Since then, I have been tasked with trying to put the coronavirus crisis into some kind of historical perspective as regards Scottish football.
The terrifying realisation is that it is an unprecedented danger to our beloved national sport.
Now in my 30th year as a sports journalist (I know I don’t look that old), there has never been such uncertainty and concern.
The pandemic is an existential threat to clubs and the game as a whole in this country. That isn’t being melodramatic or sensationalist. It is just the truth.
If we come out the other end with every team still in business then it will be a miracle and something worth celebrating more than any goal you have ever seen your team score.
Back when I started at The Courier, your biggest worry was missing out on a story that some annoying rival had managed to dig up.
Our fiercest rivalry was, as you would expect, with our stablemate paper The Evening Telegraph. The Tele reporters were your pals as well as colleagues who shared an office in Bank Street, and then the Kingsway. However, you still tried your best to beat them to the punch just as hard as you did the national titles.
When a crisis came along, you worked all the hours you needed to and went the extra mile to get a line.
Courier readers were greeted with my story “Administration fears over Dundee FC” on the morning of November 20 2003. I was suddenly writing for the front page as well as the back.
Your first thought was getting the news out but not far behind were concerns for the thousands of Dundee fans – including my own friends and family – who were terrified about what would now happen to their club. That second worry would quickly become my first as people you knew, talented players and loyal staff, were made redundant.
From our patch of ground, which was just a few square metres of concrete on the path outside the main door that we hacks made home, we watched and waited for what we knew would be bad news.
One of the most difficult things at the time was wading through promise after promise made by Giovanni di Stefano that he would be the saviour. My hunch, shared by most others, said no he wouldn’t and so it proved.
Four days after we printed that administration was where the Dark Blues were heading, there came official confirmation that the club had been placed in voluntary administration, with debts initially estimated at £20 million
“There is a growing realisation that life, never mind football, may never be quite the same again when we finally – as we will – get the better of this disease
by administrators Ernst & Young but later revised to £23m.
Thankfully, the club survived but, almost unbelievably, the second major crisis of my professional career in the city would come just seven years later and again it involved Dundee.
Administration mark 2 arrived in October 2010, and the major concern was, given the exceptional steps taken and sacrifices made by fans to keep their club going the first time around, could they help the Dark Blues survive again?
Inspired by the playing heroes of the Deefiant team, whose winning run made a mockery of the 25-point deduction imposed by the Scottish League, the Dark Blues came out the other end, albeit no longer owning Dens Park and with businesses and other creditors who were owed money losing out due to the CVA (company voluntary arrangement) agreement as was the case in the first administration.
The sun finally seemed to shine on Dundee when American owners Tim Keyes and John Nelms took control through their Football Partners Scotland (FPS) company.
In the wake of the release of the most recent accounts, which showed a loss to May 2019 of £1,825,669, FPS reiterated that they will continue to fund the club and that is to be welcomed.
Maybe, just maybe, both Dundee with Keyes and city neighbours Dundee United with Mark Ogren are better placed than others, with their wealthy
American owners able to plug any gaps over the next few weeks and months.
Looking back, the greatest crisis faced by United before Covid-19 was the financial stress of the latter part of Stephen Thompson’s era, carried through Mike Martin’s time in the chair, and relegation in May 2016.
Like Keyes, Ogren’s arrival gave United fans fresh hope of deep pockets and the millionaire has even exceeded expectations when it has come to funding United’s hoped-for return to the Premiership. Like us all, club owners will be trying to get their heads around the consequences of coronavirus.
When I left Dens that night after the Ayr game, I walked up a street that boasted two clubs determined and ready to meet the challenges they thought they would be facing with determination and resilience.
For the sake of their staff, fans and the wider community we wish them well in dealing with a raging storm that none of us really saw coming, even when we watched the December news bulletins coming out of China.
There is a growing realisation that life, never mind football, may never be quite the same again when we finally – as we will – get the better of this disease.
My body may have been frozen and I may have cursed Crankshaw under my breath for having the audacity to score in injury-time and cause me a rewrite but, boy, what I would give to rewind back to those 90 minutes at Dens.