Voyage of Discovery

I went to Dundee v Inverness Caledonian Thistle last week...

Do you ever feel like going an adventure? How about treating yourself for no real reason other than you feel you deserve it? What about having a nice day out, somewhere different? Well, all these thoughts were running through my head when I hung the expense and booked a day return to Dundee to see the Dee host Inverness Caledonian Thistle on Sunday 30 July in the final group game of the Viaplay Cup. As I’ve alluded to many times before, my progress towards completing the Scottish 42 has been slowed appreciably by Covid and its lingering influence. Hence, last season I managed only 2 new ticks (Ayr United and Edinburgh City), leaving me with 16 places still to visit. This could feasibly be 17 as Queen’s Park are briefly returning home to Lesser Hampden, but I think I can hang on until 2024 for that one, when they finally unveil the fully redeveloped ground.

Therefore, with Kelty Hearts v Falkirk pencilled in for September 23 on the first Saturday after the cricket season, the news that Dundee v ICT had been moved to the Sunday for television, really grabbed my attention. The Scottish League Cup is known as The Viaplay Cup this season, for sponsorship purposes. Viaplay is an obscure channel with a viewing reach dwarfed by GB News, who have recently announced they are ending this sponsorship deal with the Scottish FA, no doubt for reasons of fiscal imprudence. You may have missed this news, while digesting the complexity of a cup format that sees SPFL European entrants (Celtic, Hibs, Aberdeen, the Bus Drivers and the Huns) exempted to the last 16, while the 37 remaining league clubs, plus Albion Rovers (relegated last season), Brechin City (current Highland League champions, who lost out to The Spartans in the promotion play-off) and Cowdenbeath (relegated in 2022) played in 8 groups, from which the winners plus the 3 best runners-up qualified. Cutting through the minutiae, previous results meant that Dundee would qualify if they beat Inverness, who were definitely out, by a minimum of 2 goals. If they did, they’d displace Raith Rovers from their current exalted position as third best runners-up. It wasn’t the dead rubber it could have been, but the stakes were rather low.

As ever, travel by public transport in this country is at best an ordeal and at worst a Kafkaesque nightmare, with the agony trebled if your journey is on a Sunday. Having arrived home from a chastening 227 run loss to Leadgate for Tynemouth 3s on Saturday evening (6-0-44-0 and 0* if you’re asking), I was brooding on the sofa when a helpful email from www.thetrainline.com arrived, telling me the 11.32 Edinburgh to Dundee service that I’d booked myself on next morning, had been cancelled. Brilliant news, eh? At least this meant I’d be refunded the fare for that part of the journey and, I was left with two options for completing that leg: either taking the 11.15 via Stirling or waiting for the 12.35 direct. Not a problem, or so I fondly imagined. Hence, I slept easy and, showered and alert, went out for the 07.50 bus to town. The Go North East app told me it was 3 minutes away, so I stared down the road in anticipation. Nothing happened. No vehicle appeared. Another check of the app revealed the bus had deviated from its normal route, though the website and social media did not say why. I was left with no choice, if I wanted to make my train at 9.15. Uber it was and, £13 lighter (which GNE refunded me with complementary travel vouchers when I rang to complain on Monday), I reached the station with enough time to grab a coffee and take a table seat on a mostly deserted train to Edinburgh.

Arriving at 11.10 on platform 6, I stepped aboard the 11.15 to Stirling on the adjoining platform. We sat and waited until 11.25 when the guard announced this train had also been cancelled because of a signalling fault, so the 12.35 direct it was. Rammed to the rafters, I was glad to find a seat and alighted at Dundee just before 2. I’d only ever been to the City of Discovery once before, in August 1997 and not to take in a game. What I remembered most clearly was how hilly it was. Frankly, with a ticket to collect and an hour to kick off, the lactic acid in my old calves caused by fruitlessly chasing leather the afternoon before, meant there was no way I was going to try ascending the Dundonian peaks on foot and so I took a taxi, which was £7 well spent. I arrived, found the ticket collection point, bought a programme and had a dander around, noticing both the generally unkempt nature of this particular area of Dundee, known somewhat logically as Hilltown, and the proximity of Tannadice, about 100 yards down the road. I didn’t visit the other ground, as that’s an adventure for another day, but rather took my place in the home end at Dens. A frothy, pyroclastic coffee and an edible steak pie for a fiver accompanied me to my seat behind the goal.

Dens Park is a quaint old ground; not quite dilapidated, but it has seen better days. The best of those undoubtedly being in May 1986 when Albert Kidd’s late double denied the Bus Drivers the Premier Division title. For this game, with 2,337 present (including 121 from Inverness, which is significantly fewer than they took to Hampden for the final back in May), the standing enclosure on the far side, that extended most of the way down the touchline until it came to some overgrown and tussocky steps that look like part of an abandoned building site, appears to have been closed for good, and possibly condemned. The main stand on the left, which has a curious angle to its roof, was only thinly populated by those who appeared to have bought corporate briefs or other membership style packages, while my bit of the ground was probably two-thirds full and contained 90% of the crowd.

After an early flurry that saw the Dee hit the bar after a penalty area scramble, the game degenerated badly. Frankly, it was terrible. Misplaced passes, bad ball control, wayward shooting: the usual dross. When it reached the break goalless, nobody could have been surprised. The main worry was, despite the irrelevance of the game if it ended in a draw, the Viaplay Cup’s idiosyncratic insistence that drawn games go straight to penalties, with the winners gaining 2 points. That would be one spectacle we did not need, especially with a train to catch. Thankfully, the Dee improved after the break, partly because the lumbering and clearly unfit Bolton-loanee target man Bakayoko, provided an outlet of sorts. Zach Robinson got the only goal after 60 minutes, heading in a loose ball in the box, despite ICT’s desperate attempts to hook it off the line. A few late flurries and good cameos by substitutes Cameron and McCowan hinted at the possibility of a decisive second goal, but it wasn’t to be, and Raith progressed at Dundee’s expense, rewarded with an away tie at the Leith San Siro.

Full time, I took advantage of a supportive gradient and walked back into the city centre, which looks really attractive; clean, well-maintained and shut, it nevertheless had a decent vibe to it. Plenty of bars too, not that I went in any of them; a big bottle of water from Tesco then on the train back to Edinburgh, which passed Starks Park in Kirkcaldy. Despite their fortunate progression to the next round of the Viaplay Cup, there was no evidence of punters dancing in the streets of Raith. At Waverley, I stepped straight onto a southbound Inter City and got into a great conversation with a fella who plays for Darlo RA in the Wearside League and had been watching Leeds against the Bus Drivers. All in all, a good day out and only another 15 of these to go before I get my set. Let’s hope I live that long, eh?