This one’s a KEEPER

for Forfar, we used to get into trouble if we did not beat Dundee United, and not just beat them, but really beat them,” he says.

Mackay lost the Midas touch when he crossed the road to become manager in 1980. While at Dens he lost the two big derbies; a Scottish League Cup final 32 years ago this week and then the game that saw United confirmed as champions for the only time in their history, in 1983. For Mackay, it was coming home to an extent; his first digs on moving to United were on the Provost Road, onto which Dens Park backs. “A princely ten shillings a week,” he recalls.

his horizons proved broader than a single street, however. Dundee United’s official history book has him marked down for 232 appearances, but by Mackay’s reckoning, it’s probably nearer 300 once all the friendlies and exhibitions games are taken into account. And never let it be understated; at United there were a lot of these.

Manager Jerry Kerr’s view was an admirably straightforward one. Following promotion from the old Second Division in 1960, his players were now fulltime footballers. he therefore wanted them to play football full-time rather than remain idle between May and July. It was bad news for the players’ families; good news for United’s travel operators. Kerr would prepare exotic itineraries designed to earn United some extra income while also serving as useful scouting missions. “We saw different types of football, different ideas,” says Mackay. On one occasion, they toured nigeria: “There were African lads who played in their bare feet, with ankles strapped up. Jerry wanted to bring them back to Scotland.” After a trip to the States, United even returned with a new identity; tangerine shirts, as sported by Dallas Tornado.

In 1970, United headed to Mexico, just prior to the World Cup finals. Kerr made Alf Ramsey an impish offer to give his england side a game to aid their preparation, but Ramsey was alert to the problems that could stem from letting several Scots loose on his precious players on the eve of the tournament. United took on the Mexican national side instead.

The players were advised not to get too comfortable on the return flight home, and during a stop-off in new York it was revealed why. “Jerry handed us our boarding passes and it has Olympic Air on it,” recalls Mackay. “Somewhere between Mexico City and new York, Jerry had been offered a game against Panathinaikos in Greece, and so we flew straight to Athens, and then, finally, back to Scotland.”

For someone who had thoughts about playing had no real professional football, it was all tremendously exciting. Remarkably, Mackay had only been playing goalkeeper for little over a year before being signed by Forfar. he had grown up wanting to be Alex Stott, the former Partick Thistle and Dundee centre-forward. A motor mechanic by trade, Mackay had become resigned to spending his days “under cattle lorries” at a garage in Perth, where his family moved from Partick when he was six months old. even now, biographical sites still erroneously list Perth as his birthplace.

Sometimes, so frazzled was Mackay from travel that even he didn’t know where he was from; a trip to Iceland with United proved the warm-up for a trip to Denmark, via a half-hour stopover back in Glasgow. his wife Pat, six months pregnant at the time with their first child, understandably insisted on spending a few minutes with her husband, before he was whisked away again. “I got fair stick for that from the lads back on the plane,” he says.

his management career began back in Denmark with norresundby, a glorified village side whom he guided into the national league set-up. he was then lured back to Dundee, with all the mistrust that entailed. “The Dundee fans thought here was an Arab coming across the road to ruin them, while the United fans felt let down,” he recalls. “I don’t know why. United kicked me out, Jim [McLean] came in and didn’t want me there, it was as simple as that.

“It’s only recently that they have invited me back,” he continues. “I am going to a Legends dinner in February, and I am proud to be able to do that. Pat used to go spare about it: ‘All these people who have barely played for United and are getting ‘legends’ status’. I am the secondlongest serving ’keeper, after hamish [McAlpine].”

Mackay led Dundee to promotion from the First Division in his first season and they also reached the final of the Bell’s League Cup, where they were heavily defeated by United. Worse, the final was played at their own Dens Park. “I still maintain that Bob Valentine made a mistake with the goal eric Sinclair scored,” he says. “he said there had been a push. It was 0-0 at the time.” Surprisingly, his