Changing room chat: Tangerine Toon a Shear Dee-bacle

THE fact that the city of Dundee has two, and not one, football clubs has long been a source of confusion south of the Border, with many television pundits in particular blissfully unaware that there is a Dundee and Dundee United.

Alan Shearer was the latest to betray his ignorance on the subject during Sunday night’s Match of the Day 2. While the panel were chatting about Newcastle’s tangerine away kit, which they wore in Sunday’s victory at West Brom, Magpies legend Shearer suggested it might have something to do with Dundee – the team that is, not the city. Just as swarms of angry Dees were about to plunge the BBC switchboard into meltdown, bombarding the poor receptionist with loud complaints in a thick Tayside brogue, the show’s host Colin Murray stepped forward in the nick of time to point out that the team Shearer was thinking of was Dundee United, not Dundee.

Ex-Dens chairman Angus Cook had the brainwave in the late 1980s that his club should call themselves Dundee City to avoid confusion – a bit drastic perhaps – but Alan Shearer might agree.