Alan Pattullo: Humbled fans look the best bet to lead Dundee

Published on Sunday 17 October 2010 12:55

Short of rolling over and handing Dundee three points, something they never looked like doing, Stirling Albion could not have been more accommodating towards their troubled visitors on Saturday on an emotional day at Forthbank.

The overspill of away fans were eventually permitted entry to the terracing behind one goal while the Tannoy man had made a sensitive choice of tunes to be played at half-time. Danny Wilson's Mary's Prayer with its refrain of "save me", got the Tayside theme going, while Party Fears Two by the Associates provided another haunting slice of Dundee-cana, with former Dundee owners Jimmy and Peter Marr among the appreciative throng of travelling fans.

Further goodwill could be felt in the air when Paul Goodwin, a Stirling director, presented a cheque for 250 to Dundee director Stuart Murphy at half-time, the sum raised by Stirling supporters alert to the fundraising chores which their Dundee counterparts must again engage with. They also gifted a signed Stirling shirt for good measure. It was a considerate donation that humbled Dundee. Difficult though it is to accept, the former European Cup semi-finalists had reached the point where they have been driven to accept handouts from a group of fans of a club whose greatest claim to on-pitch fame is a 20-0 victory over Selkirk, and who also teetered on the brink not long ago. An acceptance of their status in the Scottish game - one of the bigger clubs yes, but not too big to be playing Second Division football next term - might be the first step towards the Dens Park club's recovery, with thoughts of the Scottish Premier League, and jousting with Dundee United, a pipe dream for the time being. It was utterly mortifying to think that just a year ago Calum Melville, one-time club benefactor but who has now bailed out on Dundee, chirped of buying Scott Robertson from rivals United for 500,000, or whatever it would take.

Such elated rattle helped Dundee edge down another ruinous road, one they knew in their bones was fraught with danger. It helped sound what could be a death-knell of a club who had already begun to live outwith its means again. The rattle now is the sound of coins being tossed into buckets. Admirably, Dundee fans are already mobilising in an effort to raise the sum that might see the supporters achieve the dual dream of not just saving the club, but also owning it. This figure is estimated to be between 600,000 and 700,000, and the sum needs to be raised in just a month. It is sobering to contemplate not just the amount of money involved, but also the tightness of the deadline.It must also have perplexed some away fans who turned up at Forthbank on Saturday to view the host club's ability to thrive on just a home crowd of 400 or so, while Dundee, who brought with them almost three times as many supporters, have been reduced to bringing out the begging bowls again.

Stirling matched Dundee on Saturday, and proved what can be done on a limited budget. It was possible to sense a new modesty in the away stand. Dundee fans displayed a patience with the team that they are not always credited for having, something which again perhaps stems from a dissatisfaction with their club's station in life after decades of pre-eminence in their own city. It ties in with the debate on Radio Scotland on Saturday which saw reporter Jim Spence refer to Dundee United as the "people's club". The inference was that Dundee had somehow turned its face away from the working population, not a clever move in a predominantly working-class city. It is of course completely irrelevant in this day and age. Neither club could afford to restrict themselves when it comes to drawing in fans, but if Dundee ever were the so-called establishment team, then, make no mistake, they are slumming it now. But the fans are displaying ample desire to get their hands dirty again. An impressive away support of 1200 had Bryan Jackson, the club's latest administrator, expressing his regret that the old system of splitting the gate revenue was not still in place. But Dundee fans would agree, I am sure, that if a club deserves to feel the benefit of a larger than expected crowd then it's Stirling Albion. They are in the first full season of 100 per cent fans' ownership and are perhaps a model the likes of Dundee might like to follow.

Jackson later stressed in a radio interview that he would be open to an increased level of supporters' involvement at Dens, one which is greater than the present situation where the Dundee Supporters Society - the new body formed by the disparate supporter groups, including Dee4Life - have a 26 per cent stake in the club, although even this was not enough to ensure the sort of vigilance to rein in the type of cavalier over-spending which has brought Dundee to the edge of insolvency. Jackson was moved by the scenes at Stirling on Saturday, but the battle Dundee have is laying hands on the money. "There is no problem with the willingness," Jackson told The Scotsman. "It's just getting the money together in this economic environment. Can they raise the money - and quickly enough?"

Dundee fans have made a start by shedding the pretention that the club belongs anywhere else but in their embrace.