Dunfermline Athletic 2-1 Dundee

Dundee's title hopes took a massive blow as Dunfermline finally secured a win over the Dees. Dundee knew they needed to win the game if they wanted to keep on to ICT's coat-tails but sadly the capitulated to a very hungry and determined Dunfermline side.
Willie Gibson gave the host's an early lead at a rain soaked East End Park. Steven Bell's cross found Gibson who smashed the ball home to give the Pars the lead in the opening five minutes. Dunfermline doubled their lead in the 34th minute with a terrific 30 yard strike from Steven Bell. Dundee changed things at halftime but couldn't penetrate Dunfermline's defence until the 90th minute when Malone headed past Pars substitute keeper Greg Fleming for a slight consolation.

Greg Paterson for Dunfermline was subbed after a horrendous injured believed to be a broken leg afer a challenge from Ben Hutchinson. We sincerely wish Greg all the best in his recovery.




TEAMS:

Dunfermline: Paterson (Fleming 32 ) Ross, McGregor, Dowie, McCann, Mason, Woods, Bell, Gibson (Willis 88) McDougall (Phinn 75) Campbell

Subs not used: Higgins, Muirhead

Goals : Gibson 5, Bell 34


DUNDEE: Bullock, Paton (Shinnie 45) MacKenzie (McKeown 45), Klimpl, Malone, O'Leary, Hart, Kerr, Harkins, Griffiths, Hutchinson (Higgins 45)

Subs not used: Soutar, Forsyth

Goal: Malone 90


Attendance: 2134

Dunfermline Athletic v Dundee

A big game looms tommorow night for Dundee and it has to be a must win to keep up our chances of promotion. It will be a very tough match but bear in mind we have a very decent record against Dunfermline over the last few seasons and we are currently unbeaten against them this season.
Dunfermline come into this game off the back of a defeat against Queen of the South whilst Dundee drew with Ross County in their last game.

Richie Hart and Andrew Shinnie both took knocks on Saturday but both are expected to take part in the game at East End Park tommorow night, Currently on the sidlines is David Cowan and Paul McHale and Rab Douglas.


My expected line up.

Bullock, Paton, McKeown, O'Leary Malone, Harkins, Kerr, Klimpl, Shinnie, Griffiths, Higgins.

Subs: Soutar, MacKenzie, Forsyth, McMenamin, Hutchinson.

Gordon Chisholm: New manager profile

On Sunday March 21st 2010, Gordon Chisholm returned to Dens Park as the manager who replaces Jocky Scott. The former Dark Blues defender was delighted to return to Dens again and was looking forward to his challenge ahead.

Gordon was born in Glasgow on the 8th April 1960.
He started his playing career at Sunderland in 1978. He spent 7 years at Sunderland where he made 197 appearances and scored 10 goals. In his time at Sunderland, he managed to reach the League Cup final in 1985 where unfortunately for him, Sunderland lost 1-0 to Norwich City.
Gordon then joined Hibernian in 1985 and spent two seasons at Easter Road. On his Hibernian debut, he scored in the league cup semi final win over Rangers. He played in the League Cup final in Scotland and is one of the very few to have played in both League Cup finals in Scotland and England.
Gordon then joined Dundee in 1987 and he made his Dark Blue debut in July 1987 against Arbroath in the Forfarshire Cup where he scored in a 6-2 win for Dundee. He had a little wait to tast league action with Dundee for the first time. It was September before he could manage an appearance in the 2-0 away win at Fir Park. He made a further 14 appearances in the Dark Blue shirt that season. His second season at Dundee was more fruitful and he made 38 appearances and scored 4 goals only missing two games all season. He further glavanised his place in the side and again the following season with Dundee in the First Division after being relegated, he only missed two games in the entire season. In 1991/2, Dundee gained promotion and was the captain of the team which lifted the trophy. He made a total of 44 appearances for the Dees. This was his final game in a Dark Blue shirt.
Gordon joined Partick Thistle in 1992 but only was to appear nine times before he decided to retire from playing. He decided to venture into coaching and he furthered himself into the role of assitant manager. He was coach at Partick Thistle before deciding to venture into an assitant position with Ian McCall (ironically now at Partick Thistle) at Clydebank. He also had spells as McCall's assitant at Airdrie, Falkirk and Dundee United. When McCall was axed as United manager in 2005, he was given the reins at United on a caretaker manager capacity and guided Dundee United to the Scottish Cup final which prompted United in rewarding Gordon with a permanent deal. It wasn't to be for Chisholm though and after poor results, he was sacked by Dundee United in 2006 and he decided to re-join McCall as assitant at Queen of the South. When Ian left for Partick Thistle, it was Chis that stepped into the breach and he was given the reins at Palmerston. In his first season in charge, he guided Queens to the Scottish Cup final, beating Dundee in the Quarter Final and Aberdeen in the Semi's before succombng to Rangers 3-2 in an absolutely fantastic spectacle of a final. He also helped Queens finish 4th. As a result of finishing runners up in the Scottish Cup, Gordon and Queens were rewarded with a European jaunt. Unfortunately they were knocked out in the qualification round to Danish side FC Nordsjælland  over two legs. His second season in charge saw Queens start well but fell away dramatically and finished midtable. He was also heavily linked with the managers job at Dens Park after Dundee sacked Alex Rae but the Dens board opted for Jocky Scott instead.
This season started brightly for Queen of the South and Gordon and he guided them to the summit early on in the campaign. However that early form has since dwindled and they are now sitting midtable.
His final game in charge for Queens was a 3-0 defeat by Ayr United at Somerset Park on Saturday 20th March 2010 and on Sunday March 21st he was appointed the manager of Dundee FC, replacing Jocky Scott who had been sacked the previous day. Billy Dodds was appointed as his assitant. His first two games in charge of Dundee have ended in score draws.


photo (c) http://www.thedees.co.uk/

Ross County 1-1 Dundee

Deja-vu struck the Dees again as Dundee missed the opportunity to take all three points from Dingwall. As the case was against Queen of the South on Tuesday night, Dundee let slip a 1-0 lead and ended up losing two points. Ben Hutchinson put Dundee in the lead in the 50th minute but a late strike from ex Dee, Steven Craig salvaged a point for the Highland side who are still hopeful of a promotion challenge. The result meant Dundee were knocked off top spot by Inverness CT who beat Partick Thistle 1-0 at Firhill.

Ross County v Dundee

Ross County v Dundee, Victoria Park, Dingwall: 3pm kick off

Teams

Ross County: McGovern,  Miller, Morrison, Scott,  Boyd,  Keddie, Gardyne, Kettlewell, Barrowman, Brittain, Vigurs

Subs: Malin, Craig, Wood, Di Giacomo, Smith


DUNDEE: Bullock, Paton, Malone, MacKenzie, O'Leary, Hart, Harkins, Klimpl, Kerr, Griffiths, Hutchinson

Subs: Soutar,McKeown, Forsyth, Shinnie, Shinnie, Higgins.

Puma roars at Dens!

Dundee have signed a 4 year deal with Puma to supply their strips and leisurewear. The deal will come into effect at the end of the season when current kitsuppliers Bukta contract expires.

This represents a good commercial move by DFC and will be very beneficial to the club.

Ryan O'Leary joins the Dee!

Dundee have signed Kilmarnock central defender Ryan O'Leary on loan until the end of the season. He goes straight into the squad for tommorows trip to Ross County and is Gordon Chisholm first signing as Dundee boss.

Dundee 1-1 Queen of the South

An evening of hard work, industry and endeavour ended in a draw for the Dark Blues in Gordon Chisholm's first game in charge against his former club. Dundee started a little bit pedestrian and Queens had the early chances with a Paul Burns effort that just cleared the Dundee crossbar  but in the 16th minute a slack backpass from a Queens player to his keeper was very well intercepted by Griffiths who was then pulled back in the box by Marc McAusland and referee had no option to award Dundee a penalty and to also send off the perpatrator, Marc McAusland. Dundee then had various chances to double their lead during the remainder of the second half but it wasn't to be. Dundee went into halftime 1-0 up.
Second half and a gritty and determined Queens took to the field. They got an equaliser soon after the break from a free kick 30 yards from goal and it was Bob Harris who slotted it past Tony Bullock in the Dundee goal. From then til the end of the game with two exceptions where Queens had two efforts to win the game but for good goalkeeping and luck, Dundee had the bulk of the second half but couldn't make anything of the numerical advantage or for their decent play. It was all Dundee though in the last few minutes of the game and Dundee thought they had been awarded a second penalty after Mike Tumulty pointed to the spot. He however changed his mind after some consultation with his assitant and instead awarded Dundee a corner. Leigh Griffiths had a wonderful chance to sneak all three points in the dying embers of the game when he found some space in the penalty box but he dragged his shot into the near sidenetting.

A point gained in Chisholm's first game is not a disaster and the performance was much much better than the one's in previous weeks.


Teams:

DUNDEE: Bullock, Paton, McKeown, Malcolm*, Malone, Shinnie (Hutchinson 79)) Kerr, Klimpl, (Hart 69)
Harkins, Griffiths*, McMenamin (Higgins 62)

Goal: Griffiths 16 (pen)

Queen of the South: Hutton, Reid, McAusland**, Lilley*, Harris*, Burns, Quinn (Weatherston 77), McKenna,  Adams*, McLaren* (Hamill 51), Holmes (O'Connor 67)

Goal: Harris 58

key: * booking  ** sending off

Attendance: 4,508

Referee: Mike Tumilty

Chis and Doddsy delighted to be back!

New manager Gordon Chisholm and his assistant Billy Dodds are both delighted to return to the club. Speaking to DFCTV, they both stated that it was good to be back at Dundee. Chis further added that the club has to pull together in the next 6 weeks as there are 9 massive games. To see their interviews in full go to:
http://www.thedees.co.uk/news_detail.asp?ID=3166
http://www.thedees.co.uk/news_detail.asp?ID=3167


photo (c) http://www.thedees.co.uk/

Chis is at the helm!

Dundee tonight have announced the appointment of Queen of the South boss, Gordon Chisholm as their new manager. Alongside him will be former Dundee striker, Billy Dodds as his assistant manager. Chisholm replaces Jocky Scott as boss after he was sacked yesterday.

Dark Blue Forever would like to warmly welcome Gordon and Billy back to Dundee FC.

Photo (c) of Socheid (Wikipedia)

Jocky Scott sacked!

It was with regret that Dundee FC announced tonight that manager Jocky Scott was relieved of his duties after a wretched run of results which has seriously questioned Dundee's promotion bid.

The statement on the Dundee FC website read:

Dundee Football Club announce the departure of Jocky Scott from his post as the club’s manager with immediate effect.
The unanimous decision of the board was not taken lightly, but it was felt that in view of results since the turn of the year move was essential and in the best interests of the club.
As a board we felt it was vital this move was made while there was still enough time for a new manager to be appointed and to secure the victories required to get the team back to the SPL at the end of the season.
Every effort will be made to ensure the appointment of a new manager is made as quickly as possible. The club will not be advertising the post.
The board would like to take this opportunity to thank Jocky Scott for his work since returning as manager in the autumn of 2008.
His devotion to his duties and desire to get the team back to where he feels it belongs have been admirable."

http://www.thedees.co.uk/
 
 
Jocky Scott re-joined Dundee in October 2008 for the third time as manager. He guided the Dark Blues to Alba Challenge Cup success this season with a win over Inverness CT in the final. He has also guided the Dees to top spot in the league this season but since Christmas however results have not been great and with a 3-0 defeat to Airdrie United today, the Dundee board reacted and relieved Jocky of his duties.
 
Dark Blue Forever would like to wish Jocky Scott all the best for the future and would like to thank him for his sterling efforts in his third spell as Dundee manager.

Airdrie United 3-0 Dundee

Dundee fell to Airdrie United by 3 goals to nil as Dundee's promotion bid keeps faltering. Goals from McLaughlin, O'Carroll and Gemmill secured victory for the home side and left Dundee red faced and embarrassed. Fortunately results went Dundee's way and still sit at the top, 4 points clear.

Airdrie United v Dundee

Dundee travel to Airdrie United today looking for a win. Missing the game today will be Eric Paton who is suspended after his two yellow cards on Wednesday night at Ayr United.

Teams for today:
Airdrie United: Robertson, Storey, Lovering, Smyth, Donnelly, McLaughlin,Trouten, McCann, O'Carroll, Gemmill, Waddell.

Subs: Parratt, McDonald, Keegan, Baird, Hollis


DUNDEE: Douglas, Malcolm, MacKenzie, McKeown, Malone, Shinnie, Kerr, Klimpl, Harkins, Hutchinson, McMenamin.

Subs: Bullock, Clarke, Hart, Cameron, Higgins.

Ayr United 1-1 Dundee

Dundee bounced back from the defeat against Raith Rovers in  the Scottish Cup to record a draw with Ayr United at Somerset Park. It was Gary Harkins that broke the deadlock for Dundee midway through the second half but Ayr United equalised 10 minutes or so from halftime. The second half saw plenty of effort and commitment by the Dark Blues but they couldn't get the winning goal albeit they did have the ball in the net but Leigh Griffiths was offside. Eric Paton was sent off aswell in the second half but a point was a fair result.

Ayr United v Dundee, Preview Wednesday 17th March

Dundee take on Ayr United at Somerset Park this Wednesday and Dundee will be hoping to get back on track with a win after their embarrassing Scottish Cup Quarter Final exit to Raith Rovers at Dens Park last Saturday. Ayr United are on a good bit of form at the moment with taking 7 points out of the last 9 available. Ayr United also gave themselves a good account of themselves in all of their games against Dundee this season and nearly caused an upset in the Scottish Cup 5th Round at Dens when they took the league against the Dark Blues through former Dee Tam McManus.
Jocky will hopefully be making some changes as they look for a win to put them six points clear at the top of the league. Saturday brings another difficult fixture in the form of Airdrie United at Airdrie but if Dundee want to win the league they have to win maximum points against the two lowest placed teams in the First Division.

Dundee 1-2 Raith Rovers, Scottish Cup Quarter Final

Dundee were knocked out of the Scottish Cup on Saturday at home against part-timers Raith Rovers 2-1.

Raith scored twice in the opening 10 minutes, whilst Dundee pulled a goal back with 18 minutes to go.

Enough said.

Hugh Robertson

Dark Blue Forever is saddened to learn of the passing of Hugh Robertson. He died peacefully at home on Friday. He started his Dundee career in 1957 and went on to make 292 appearances for the Dark Blues. He was heavily involved in the championship winning season of 1962 and was ever present in the team bar one game. He also scored 61 goals for the Dees, including one in the 8-1 demolition of  Cologne. His death follows that of Bobby Cox who passed away last month and also that of Alan Gordon. Deepest condolences to the Robertson family.

Dundee 2-2 Inverness CT

Deja-vu hit Caley Thistle in this latest installment between Dundee and Inverness CT. Pangs of the Alba Challenge Cup final were noticeable in this again league game as once again Inverness CT surrendered a two goal advantage against table-topping Dundee.
Dundee started the game very brightly and in the 4th minute a clever run by Ben Hutchinson saw him pick out Leigh Griffiths who unleashed a bolt of a strike towards goal but a fantastic save from the keeper denied the Dark Blues from taking the lead. After such a bright start to the game, Dundee lost their way a bit and Inverness began to run proceedings. Inverness CT should have gone in at half time in the lead but Rab Douglas was the hero for the Dark Blues as he pulled off some great saves to deny the Highland side.
The second half and disaster struck straight away for Dundee. A hopeful ball from Inverness resulted in Adam Rooney, whom had missed a sitter in the first half, running down the wing and the resulting cross saw Richie Foran to head the ball into the net. The game ebbed and Dundee still didn't really threaten the Inverness goal and in the 59th minute, Caley Thistle doubled their lead when diabolical Dundee defending allowed Adam Rooney to square the ball to Eric Odhiambo in the box who tapped the ball into the net. Dundee were reeling by this stage and it looked very unlikely that they would get anything out of this game. However, cue Brian Kerr. With 12 minutes remaining Dundee had a freekick on the edge of the Caley box, the resulting freekick was blocked and it fell to Brian Kerr who volleyed a terrific 30 yard shot past Ryan Ession and into the net. Could the comeback be on again, surely lightening doesn't strike twice? For Dundee, it does, especially against Inverness. The spirit of the Alba Challenge Cup final began to flow throughout the Dark Blues and they kept pressing and pressing and virtually had Inverness CT on the rack. With 6 minutes remaining, the ball fell to Gary Harkins, he squirmed to get into a shooting position and at 25 yards he unleashed a shot which took a heavy deflection off one of the Inverness players and the ball went into the back of the net. 2-2! Dundee looked a different proposition now and still they tried to push forward in search for the winner but to no avail, they had to settle for a point. And how big a point that could be in the title race.

Dundee v Inverness CT preview

Dundee take on First Division inform team Inverness CT at Dens in a top of the table battle. Caley lie nine points behind leaders Dundee with a game in hand.  Caley though have not lost in their last 10 gamws. A win for Dundee though would all but rule Inverness CT out of the running but a win for Inverness will blow the whole title race open again.
Terry Butcher has no injuries or suspensions to worry whilst Dundee hope to include Sean Higgins, Craig McKeown and Bob Malcolm in the squad in a game which could prove vital in where the First Division will end up.

Bob signs on at Dens Park

Former Rangers defender Bob Malcolm has signed for Dundee until the end of the season. The 29 year old brings a wealth of experience to the Dark Blues backline and is being considered for the game against Inverness CT providing international clearance comes through before then.

Dundee v Raith Rovers Scottish Cup Quarter Final

Dundee will play Raith Rovers in the Active Nations Scottish Cup Quarter Final at Dens Park on Saturday 13th March 2010, 3pm kick-off. Prices are £17 for adults and £10 for concessions.

Raith Rovers v Dundee, rearranged game.

Dundee will now play Raith Rovers at Starks Park on Wednesday 24th April.

Huge week for Dundee looms

Well, with our game called off on Saturday, all we could do was sit back and watch what other teams were doing in the First Division. It proved to be a very fruitful day for the Dark Blues as both Ross County and Inverness CT, both our nearest challengers, dropped points. A pang of frustration I must admit came into being as it would have been nice if our game had gone ahead and that we got the three points, stretching the gap at the top to 11 points. Still, we are still nicely postioned at the top of the league, 8 points clear but it will certainly be an interesting week ahead. Both Ross County and Inverness CT are in midweek action and both fixtures will be of a certain interest to Dundee. Ross County are away to Queen of the South whilst Morton host Inverness CT at Cappielow. Elsewhere on Tuesday, Dunfermline host Raith and Ayr United are away to Airdrie United.

It could prove to be a very good week for Dundee but more importantly, Dundee will have an advantage over our next opponents at Dens on Saturday, Inverness CT, as we don't have a midweek game, so we should be fresher for the challenge on Saturday but that is not always the case I do admit. If Inverness CT and Ross County were to drop points on Tuesday and then again on Saturday, Dundee will just about have one hand on the First Division trophy. It is a massive, massive week ahead for Dundee and one that I think will shape the destiny on where the First Division trophy will go to.