Modest Kenny Miller close to Gordon Smith's age-old Dundee record

Kenny Miller celebrates his hat-trick against Hamilton. Picture: Paul Devlin/SNS

Just 2000 people saw Gordon Smith add a second goal for Dundee to complement Alan Gilzean’s opener in a 2-0 win over Falkirk. It was the Dens Park side’s last goal of the 1962-63 season, when they sent shock waves through Europe by reaching the last four of the European Cup, dispensing with the likes of Cologne and Anderlecht en route.

In fact, Smith’s previous two goals came in both legs of an aggregate 6-2 quarter-final dismantling of the Belgian champions.

But it’s the less remembered goal at Brockville, now of course no longer, which demands our attention here. As well as being Smith’s last for Dundee, it also left him the oldest player to score for the Dens Park club – the legendary winger was 38 years and 358 days old.

The record has stood for 55 years. Over half a century. But its chances of lasting this season now seem remote. In fact, one of the legendary Smith’s more minor claims to fame might not survive the end of play today.

Kenny Miller, should he find the net for Dundee against Aberdeen tonight, will have done so just five days before turning 39, on 23 December. In short, if he finds the net again for Dundee, he will become the club’s oldest goalscorer. Miller scored a consolation for Dundee on Saturday at Kilmarnock but between then and now has crossed Smith’s threshold of 38 years and 51 weeks old: Smith’s goal v Falkirk came a week before he turned 39.

There must be something in the East Lothian air.

Musselburgh’s Miller grew up 15 miles or so along the coast from North Berwick, where Smith, while having spent his childhood in Montrose,  later made his home.

A goal at Pittodrie this evening would also take Miller to within sight of another Dundee record, set much more recently by David Clarkson. The striker scored in eight consecutive games for the Dens Park side in the 2014/15 season. Miller has now struck in five successive outings since getting off the mark for his new club against St Mirren last month to extinguish doubts he could still cut it at this level. Cut it? He’s treading new ground, pushing boundaries. He has another year’s contract after this one. It’s feasible he could still be scoring for Dundee in his forties.

No-one is suggesting for a second he’s comparable to Smith in terms of talent: the winger, who won Scottish league titles at Hearts, Hibs and Dundee, is a one-off, a genuine great.

But, according to Craig Brown, who played with Smith at Dundee and handed Miller his international debut for Scotland in 2001, the latter is certainly fit to lace the former’s boots in one crucial respect,  fit being the operative word.

“He’s looked after himself superbly well,’” says Brown. “There’s not an ounce of fat on him, as was the case with  Gordon.

“Kenny’s attitude has always been superb – I was astonished at what happened recently  at Rangers (when Miller was suspended then freed), I could not imagine it.

“But I had three dealings with him – managing him, signing him for Derby where I was football consultant and managing against him when I was at Preston North End and he was at Wolves – and he was always impressive.

“It’s a fair age, especially for a striker,” he adds. “Usually you work your way backwards on the pitch. You start off as a striker and end up centre-half or full-back. He is a modest character, he has looked after himself. He was never flash.”

Brown rewarded Miller’s bright form with Hibs and then Rangers by sending him on as substitute for Scott Booth in Scotland’s 1-1 friendly draw against Poland in Bydgoszcz in 2001. It was Miller’s first of 69 caps for his country, earned under a further six international managers.

It was the testimony of Stenhousemuir manager Terry Christie, who was also a player at Dens with Gordon Smith, which persuaded Brown to call up Miller. The player had played for Christie on loan at Stenhousemuir, for whom he scored his first senior goal twenty years ago last month against Alloa.

“The man who promoted him, and rightly so, was Terry Christie – he had him on loan at Stenhousemuir from Hibs,” recalls Brown. “I was looking for advice on him. I phoned Terry – he said: ‘he is a goalscorer, he is a certainty’.

“I had seen him of course. But when you don’t know him well enough you take soundings from people you respect. And I respected wee Terry.”

Brown also signed Miller at Derby County, where he was football consultant and Billy Davies was manager. They had won promotion to the Premier League against the odds in 2007 and pocketed over £50 million in the process. The chairman demanded a top-quality striker. They had planned to buy Southampton’s Kenwyne Jones but bid too low. They signed Miller from Celtic and Norwich City’s Robbie Earnshaw instead. “Two strikers for the price of one,” says Brown.

It proved a difficult season in the top flight for Derby but Miller did not stop running, did not stop trying. He scored a stunning goal against Newcastle at St James’ Park. Brown remembers the Scot having the smallest car in the car park to fit his modest demeanour.

As a current Aberdeen director, Brown, even  given his Dark Blue links, is hoping Miller won’t damage the Dons’ title hopes tonight. He would be happy to witness Miller scoring providing it doesn’t rob the hosts of points. But he’s glad to hear the player stands on the brink of something  special.

“The fact he is set to outdo someone as magnificent as The Gay – as we all called  Gordon – hands the achievement extra significance, and means it must be applauded more vigorously,” he says.

“If Dundee score – and I hope they don’t. But IF they score I would like it to be none other than Kenny, just not a goal that affects the game…”