The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Dens Park hero tells of being booted out over party
Dens Park legend Jocky Scott has revealed a party at city rival Jim McLean’s house after Dundee’s 1973 League Cup victory led to him being booted out of the club.
Scott would return as a player once more to finish his playing days before three different spells as manager cemented his place in the history of the club.
But his first stint, which lasted 11 years and saw 275 appearances, ended abruptly when thenmanager Davie White took exception to a cup celebration by a group of players at McLean’s house.
White’s predecessor John Prentice had taken McLean, a former Dundee player, to Dens Park as first-team coach in 1970.
McLean had shown his talent as a coach with the Dark Blues before leaving amid a rift with members of the board.
He wouldn’t go far, though, taking over as manager across the road at Dundee United in 1970.
In a wide-ranging and lengthy interview on the Dundee fan podcast Up Wi’ The Bonnets Scott detailed his playing and management career at Dens Park.
As well as the McLean revelation, the 74-year-old talked about the end of a Scotland career just as it had begun and taking on Pele.
Recalling the celebrations in the city after lifting the League Cup in 1973, Jocky revealed a decision that would unknowingly end his – and his team-mates’ time at the club early.
“Wee Jim had been a player at Dundee and I played with him,” Scott said.
“Then he went away to Kilmarnock before he was brought back as assistant manager. At the time when I heard that I must admit I said ‘he was a moany-faced so-and-so on the pitch, what’s he going to be like as a coach’.
“It didn’t take long for him to assert his authority on the training pitch.
“And it didn’t take him long to assert his knowledge of the game and tactical awareness to the players. Also our fitness had never been better than when we worked under Jim.
“We’re sitting in the Angus Hotel having a drink (after winning the cup) and George Stewart piped up ‘Wee Jim should be here but he cannae cos he’s manager across the road’
“‘If he’s no’ here, let’s us go see him’. So, that’s what we did, half a dozen of us and our wives.
“We turned up at his house and he didn’t know what to say.
“We just told him ‘we’re here because we feel you were the start of us being better players than what we were before you arrived’ so it was just a thank you, nothing else.
“Unfortunately it didn’t go down well with the management at that time. About 18 months later, the six of us were gone.”
He added: “At that time we were a better team than Dundee United and we felt when John Prentice left if Wee Jim had stayed that we would have done what United did. Unfortunately it wasn’t to be and Wee Jim moved across the road. The rest is obviously history.”
By this time so was Jocky’s international career as he won two Scotland caps in 1971 only for a dispute with first manager Tommy Docherty to rear its head again.
Bobby Brown was out as national team boss and in came Docherty, who had been Scott’s boss in his youth days at Chelsea.
“When you start a career in football, the ultimate aim is you want to play for your country,” the threetime Dundee boss said.
“I was lucky in the respect that my first game against Denmark was a game where Scotland were already out and couldn’t qualify. Bobby Brown, manager at the time, brought in a few players like myself that hadn’t been tried out.
“I went in hoping I would get some playing time and it would maybe catapult me into more international games.
“Unfortunately that wasn’t to be. I played the next game against Russia and thought I did well.
“That was Bobby Brown’s last game and the next manager was my first manager (Tommy Docherty) who I had already taken a total dislike to and he had a total dislike of me. That was my last game for Scotland.”
The opportunity to take on international stars, however, did not pass Jocky by.
After leaving Dundee and a spell at home-town club Aberdeen, Scott headed for America and Seattle Sounders.
Another former Dee, Jimmy Gabriel, took him across the Atlantic to play in the North American Soccer League where superstars like Franz Beckenbauer, Carlos Alberto, Gordon Banks, Bobby Moore, George Best and Eusebio were plying their trade.
Alongside arguably the greatest footballer of all time in Pele.
Asked about the photo where he is sprinting away from the Brazil great, Jocky responded: “I nutmegged him at that time, he was trying to get the ball back!
“Not only him but the amount of top-class international players who were playing in America at that time, it was great to be on the same pitch as them.
“Although he was near enough at the end of his career, he still showed a lot of great touches and things he had shown throughout his career.”