My
birthday is tomorrow so I was allowed out of Devon and on getting off the
train at the Tay Brig station just by the good ship Discovery and the amazing
new V & A building I walked up with Johnnie Scobie to the Overgate, along
the High Street to the Murraygate, up the escalators in the Wellgate shopping
mall up the steps below the Hull Toon to reach the Victoria Road. I walked along it, and continued uphill to Dens Road, past the much lamented
market, eventually arriving at Dens Park for the battle between the Titans of
Dundee FC and of Heart of Midlothian.
Just a moment or two before half-time, in front of a sizeable crowd and after a closely fought first half, Dundee took the lead at a corner from which our young defender Kerr Waddell headed his first goal for Dundee past the Hearts goalie.
Although under a great deal of pressure in the second half Dundee held out until our centre forward, who shall remain nameless, sent a long but too short back pass towards our goalie which was intercepted by the Hearts centre forward, Kyle Lafferty - a man who has been courageously dealing with some difficult and sensitive issues of his own recently - who swept the ball into the net past the unfortunate Scott Bain, who had previously made, and later made, a number of heroic saves.
The confidence of Hearts burgeoned and I thought they looked as if they might vanquish the famous eleven but, against the odds, in the five minutes of added injury time, Dundee won another corner and and once again our young hero, Kerr Waddell, leapt high like a salmon and, like a gifted professional footballer, headed the ball past the hapless, unprotected Hearts goalie, Jon McLaughlin and into the net.
The supporting Dundee thousands jumped up in ecstasy and impulsively broke out singing the lines from a Monkees' song, "Cheer up Sleepy Jean, Oh what can it mean? to a daydream believer and a great football team." I don't know why we were singing it but it seemed so appropriate. I suppose that's football and life.
Just a moment or two before half-time, in front of a sizeable crowd and after a closely fought first half, Dundee took the lead at a corner from which our young defender Kerr Waddell headed his first goal for Dundee past the Hearts goalie.
Although under a great deal of pressure in the second half Dundee held out until our centre forward, who shall remain nameless, sent a long but too short back pass towards our goalie which was intercepted by the Hearts centre forward, Kyle Lafferty - a man who has been courageously dealing with some difficult and sensitive issues of his own recently - who swept the ball into the net past the unfortunate Scott Bain, who had previously made, and later made, a number of heroic saves.
The confidence of Hearts burgeoned and I thought they looked as if they might vanquish the famous eleven but, against the odds, in the five minutes of added injury time, Dundee won another corner and and once again our young hero, Kerr Waddell, leapt high like a salmon and, like a gifted professional footballer, headed the ball past the hapless, unprotected Hearts goalie, Jon McLaughlin and into the net.
The supporting Dundee thousands jumped up in ecstasy and impulsively broke out singing the lines from a Monkees' song, "Cheer up Sleepy Jean, Oh what can it mean? to a daydream believer and a great football team." I don't know why we were singing it but it seemed so appropriate. I suppose that's football and life.
