First and foremost, let me congratulate everyone involved with TEB and readers after Crystal Palace reached the FA Cup Final. I never got to see the game but I have seen the highlights and images. The support looked truly amazing.
Now onto my team. It was great to finally see Dundee back in action after what seemed like a long week off due to the Scottish Cup semi final games but come tea time when the final results were filtering in, it was well worth the wait to see the Dark Blues beat Partick Thistle 2-1!
Uniquely, it was our third trip to Firhill in the league this season due to the split happening but I will not moan too much about it as it was also our third win at Firhill this season! In fact since the incarnation of the SPL in 1998 and the SPFL in 2014, we have yet to taste defeat at the hands of the Glasgow team in thirteen ties. That is an impressive record we hold over them.
This was an excellent victory for Dundee after the disappointment of losing out on a top six place a few weeks ago and even more so since we only had fourteen outfield players fit. This win also made the possibility that we can be dragged into a play off spot all but over because it would take Kilmarnock to win all their games and us not to pick up anymore points for that to happen. It possibly could not happen …… could it?
Kane Hemmings was the man who was knocking in the goals again for us with a double and his league tally now sits at a very impressive twenty one goals. If you include his goals in the cups, it reaches twenty-five. That is an absolute tremendous reward from someone who we signed on a pre-contract less than a year ago.
Some fans may not remember but at the start of the season, Hemmings was the target for some of the boo boys in Dens Park. It is amazing how things turn around in such a short space of time. The man is an absolute machine for us now and despite speculation now starting that clubs are sniffing around him, long may it continue.
Dundee announced this week that they had opened talks with Greg Stewart to extend his stay with the club as he would be entering the last year on his contract in the next few months. Even though this is music to our ears, I cannot see him being with us come the start of the new season. Do not get me wrong, it would be absolutely fantastic if the board could get him to stay on for one more year but I am hearing that there are a good few clubs interested and the club are readying themselves for a bid or two.
Our next league game takes place on Monday and could potentially be a cracker. This is the final Dundee derby of the season and also for the foreseeable future. Depending on what happens in the Hamilton versus Kilmarnock match, a win here would see Dundee RELEGATE Dundee United!
Now every team would love to have the opportunity to relegate their rivals but ours comes with a little bit more baggage. The Dundee United team of the eighties was undoubtedly their finest ever and they went on to achieve great success. Unfortunately for us Dundee fans, it always seemed to happen against us, at our ground and at our expense.
Winning their first ever piece of silverware by beating Aberdeen in the League Cup Final at Dens Park in 1979, retaining the League Cup again the following year at Dens Park again but this time against us and last but not least, winning the Scottish League in 1983 against us and yes ….. at Dens AGAIN! I was not born yet and I cannot imagine what my fellow, older Dee’s had to put up with.
Rightfully so, Dundee fans are revelling at our neighbours current plight while the Arabs are uncontrollably bricking it that they will fall to the sword at the scene of their greatest triumph. This is evident in the fact that instead of giving them their normal 4,000 ticket allocation, they have not had enough demand to indicate they will sell that much. They will be seated in the Bob Shankly stand which holds around 3,100 (I think) and even then, early reports suggest that there could be less than 2,000 of them at the game. I will wait until after the game to have a pop at their support though as they might surprise us all and snap up all their tickets.
As I said earlier, we do have to wait and see the result in the Hamilton versus Kilmarnock game on the Saturday before to see if this will indeed be the ‘Doon Derby’ that the fans are hoping for. A Kilmarnock win and it is down to us to put the final nail in their coffin, anything other than that and all we are able to do is guide them further down the road to their impending relegation.
Either will be fine with me.
MON THE DEE!
