It was good to get back to league business last weekend even if it did throw up a very hard test against Hearts at a sold out Tynecastle.
Around seven hundred Dundee fans made the trip to Edinburgh and there could have potentially been more but this season the Jambo’s have been backed brilliantly by their own fans and they have limited the amount of away tickets handed out. There was a few cheeky Dee’s though who managed to sneak into the Hearts end but we will keep that to ourselves.
Despite being the newly promoted club this season, Hearts have done brilliantly to get to where they are. Sometimes they do not play pretty but they have got the results and that is often all that matters in football at the end of the day.
I had to plump with listening to the game on the radio and after the first few minutes it seemed us Dundee fans would be in for a very hard afternoon.
Having gone on about Dundee losing easy goals this past few weeks, their opener was no different. A free header just outside the six yard box is criminal and just added to the long line of goals we have gifted the opposition. Despite my obvious thoughts on this, you cannot take anything away from Hearts whose build up play was superb as was the cross inch perfect.
Hearts had more of the ball and despite losing a goal, defended well considering both centre halfs, James McPake and Julen Extabeguren, were making their comebacks from injury.
Like so many of our games this season, we can have a poor first half and then come out all guns blazing. This game was just that.
The hosts had a few chances but so did Dundee and we were able to convert one of them. Stewart threaded a brilliant through ball past the Hearts defence and Rory Loy was there to collect it and turn inside the box before slotting home a beautifully worked goal. The visiting fans went wild and I am sure the ones that infiltrated the home end celebrated silently, barely able to contain their delight.
So that was that, another draw for Dundee and another 1-1 scoreline but even though some of the fans have been vocal about their dismay of only collecting a point, the Dee faithful knew that this was a good point.
We have now drawn seven of the fifteen games we have played in the league so far this season, the most in the league. Some games we have ridden our luck and others we have thrown away but I firmly believe that we are just a few hard fought wins away from going on a run and cementing our place in the top half of the table. Our defence may look suspect and a few key players injury prone but we have the talent to have a fairly comfortable season.
The fixtures for us in the lead up to Christmas are not exactly easy but we need to string a few results together to widen the gap with ourselves and the teams at the bottom.
We come up against St Johnstone this Friday in Perth which will be a very tough game. They have just disposed of our wee neighbours Saturday past and will be hoping for a Dundee double. The Saints are not the most attractive team to watch or play against but Tommy Wright has assembled a good team and plays to get points. This has resulted in high league finishes, cup final success and also a place in the last four in this season’s League Cup. He has done one hell of a job for them and I cannot help but have a tinge of jealousy when I look at what they have achieved the past few years.
When I look ahead at this match, is it wrong to say that a draw would be a good result here despite the amount we have already accumulated this term. If we already had a few more wins under our belt then I would say yes, but we are in dire need of a win to get us going and getting one live on television against St Johnstone would be the ideal game to do it.
Moving away from what has happened on the field, I will move matters to what is being said off it.
In case you have not heard, Dundee are in talks with Celtic about moving one of our home games with them to be played in America. It would seem that the other ten teams in the Premiership would not stand in our way if this was approved.
Everyone is entitled to their opinion regarding this matter and it would seem that a good few people are keen to see it happen which I respect. It is something new, unique and exciting for them. Even just the talk that is circulating around this proposed event has been hotly discussed.
I would like to say straight away though that I am against this even getting off the drawing board and I will share my reasons why.
Our game is in dire need of change, more fans through the turnstiles and more importantly, more television money. In my opinion we should be looking to fix all of these things first before even thinking about crossing over the pond.
Let us start with the television deal.
Back in March it was reported that Scottish Football rakes in more viewers than the Rugby League but that sport gets more than £25 million a season. Surely the people in charge of our game should be hell bent on getting a matching deal or at least something that comes close to the sum. Even if they are not, the clubs should be putting pressure on the blazers in charge to stop under selling our game. This maybe would stop the need to see us having to go to another country to raise exposure and to make a few extra bucks.
How about more fans through the turnstile?
This should be the main focus for our club instead of depriving the fans of a home game which will have a packed out stadium. I have spoke to people who have a say in running our club and they have talked the good game about making it more family friendly and enticing stay away fans to making a trip to Dens most Saturday’s.
What have they done to try and do these things? Put up a fish and chip van outside the Bobby Cox Stand that lasted the whole of two games.
We do have an area in the Coxy for people who have purchased family tickets which is great but what about the fans who do not come with their family that we are trying to get back? A cost of £23-£25 a ticket depending on the game? Yes, we all know the answer to that one.
The whole structure of the league does not help either. Playing the same team three times, maybe four times a season is not the most appealing. The introduction of the play-off system is a breath of fresh air but even then it has its flaws in my eyes because the Premiership team does not come into it until the final.
So there we have it. There are a few things that I feel we need to be looking at and taking care of before we even dip our toes in ideas of moving a league game abroad.
To be honest even if we did get the above sorted out and we started to see the Scottish game flourish, I would still be against any idea of moving any games outside of the United Kingdom. We could of course use this scenario to look at why the hell we would need to do this in the first place and put a plan in place to raise the profile of our game in our own country.
Then again you look at the people ruining, sorry running our game, and you know this would never happen.
