Craig Brown - The Game of My Life. Craig Brown
home side who dominated, and the pressure eventually told when Alan Cousin equalised with twelve minutes left. A few minutes later Gordon Smith hit the winner and the final scoreline was 6–2. Part of the reason why Anderlecht had conceded goals at Dens Park was because they had been following the wrong man. They knew that Alan Gilzean would be the danger and they put two men on him – which gave freedom to our other forwards. What the Belgians didn’t know was that ‘Gillie’ had gashed his foot in the first leg and had only had the six stitches removed a few hours before the return game. He had been used as a decoy and it had worked handsomely.
At the start of the season, the thought that Dundee would make it to the semifinals of the European Cup would have produced smiles from even the staunchest of supporters – and yet here we were in the last four. I was in and out of the side for League matches and I was present as one of the fourteen-man squad at every European game, home and away. Never getting on the pitch for any of those special games is something that I really regret. I do take some consolation, though, from being a part of the squad, and therefore in the dressing room and alongside the pitch at every game. It is frustrating when you are not actually playing, but it would have been much worse to have been left behind in Scotland while the side was engaged in battle in Germany, Portugal and Belgium.
Our semifinal opponents were to be AC Milan, expected to be the toughest yet of our European opposition. The first leg was away, and 78,000 fans were there in the famous San Siro Stadium. Bobby Cox was injured, and it would have been the natural choice for me to stand in for him but, unfortunately, I was injured as well, and so it was decided not to take the risk.
Dundee were a goal down after three minutes of the game starting – but they kept their heads and Alan Cousin finished some great work by Andy Penman and grabbed us an equaliser. Spirits were high in the dressing room at half-time because we felt we could contain the Italians and set up a great second leg back at Dens Park. AC Milan had other ideas, however, and soon scored two hotly disputed goals to go into a comfortable 3–1 lead. I say that the goals were controversial because there were suggestions that the ball was out of play before being crossed to Bariston who made it 2–1. As for the third goal, there was a Milan player standing in an off-side position on our goal line. The referee had given off-side but then changed his mind and awarded the goal. Milan scored again later in the game and we were disappointed to leave the pitch at the end of a 4–1 defeat.
It always sounds like sour grapes and so I try to make a point of not criticising officials or even crying over spilt milk. What’s done is done! Others, though, complained bitterly about the Spanish referee, and it does have to be said that the slightest hint of a tackle from a Dundee player did seem to bring forth an immediate whistle! Later, it was discovered that he had accepted gifts from AC Milan before the game, and he was eventually banned after some other charges of bribery, which were nothing to do with our game, had been revealed. At the end of that first leg, the Dundee players were dismayed and could not really understand how they had come to lose 4–1 to a team they considered to be inferior to the other three teams they had already encountered and beaten.
Milan were programmed to defend their lead when they came to Dens Park for the second leg, and they did it almost perfectly, although their tactics were rugged, to say the least. It was impossible to get any rhythm into the game because the Italian players continually broke it up with fouls and niggling incidents. As it was, Alan Gilzean scored just before half-time to reduce the aggregate deficit but, after having a later goal disallowed, a blatant penalty denied and a frustrated player sent off, we were forced to concede. It had been a great experience in the European Cup, and I think that Dundee had done Scotland – and indeed Britain – more than proud. I would not have missed it for the world.
Our League form suffered as a result of the pressure of the European games and in the end we finished at ninth place in the table, despite finishing quite strongly. Sadly, there would be no European football for us the following season.
Dundee Football Club was very good for me. I have already mentioned how much I admired our manager Bob Shankly, and that I learned so much from him. He was a very honest, straight Ayrshire man who had played for the famous Glenbuck Cherrypickers in the mining village of Glenbuck, where he and his brother Bill grew up with the rest of their football-mad family. Bob was also a close friend of Jock Stein, and they were all of the same mould. Bob Shankly was never one for giving out a lot of praise. He would sometimes put a hand on my shoulder before a game and say, ‘Nothing clever from you today, son!’ It might sound like a very negative way of motivating someone when all the psychologists say that positive affirmation is what is required, but we all knew what he meant and became accustomed to his special phrases. As an example, if someone said, ‘I think I’ll pass the ball inside the full-back for our winger to run on to’, Bob would say, ‘Christ, there’s nae need to get complicated!’
The lads always joked because he never ever called me Craig. He always exalted me to a deity and called me ‘Christ Craig’! Even on the rare occasions when I had a good game he would come to me after the match and say, ‘Christ Craig, that wasnae bad today, son.’ Also, if a player was being a bit bombastic in the bath, boasting about his prowess, Bob would come in and cut him dead by saying something like, ‘Will you shut up, we’ve all seen you playing!’ He had a perfect way of putting you down if you were getting too big for your boots, but he always had kind words when they were needed.
Another of Bob Shankly’s favourite sayings would be heard when a pressman asked him the team selection for the next game. Bob’s wife was named Greta, and he always gave the pressman the same answer – ‘Oor Greta hasnae picked it yet!’ It was just an amusing way of saying that he was keeping his cards close to his chest and would not reveal anything until the last possible moment before the game.
Sammy Kean was his right-hand man, coach and trainer. He was a former Hibs player and he knew his stuff all right. Between them they gave us training sessions that were long on hard work but probably a little short on imagination. There was little or no time spent on tactics. The players themselves worked those out, and some of us used to stay behind after official training to plan a few things. The senior players, particularly our right half, Bobby Seith, who had won the English League championship with Burnley, would evolve the set pieces from throw-ins and free kicks and we would practise these without supervision when the regular training had been completed. I would suggest that this was pretty unusual – not only then, but also now.
Of course, there were many light-hearted events too. One of the many other lessons I learned was never to take on a supporter in the crowd. I made that mistake playing against Celtic once. It was at Celtic Park, probably around January 1962, a cold, wet afternoon, but with the usual huge crowd. I was given the job of marking a young Celtic lad making his debut for the club. Bobby Lennox was his name, and he later went on to become one of the famous Lisbon Lions.
I was given the job of keeping him out of the game. Bob Shankly knew all about him and realised that he would be a threat. He had a saying which sounds quite chilling – ‘One from eleven is ten’. As there were no substitutes in those days, if a player was ineffective you were stuck with it for the whole game. At least, that’s what I like to think he meant! Being absolutely blunt, I had been given the job of kicking Bobby Lennox every time there was an opportunity – and to make sure that he made no real contribution to the game. You can just imagine how the Celtic supporters responded to that. I came in for a lot of stick from the home fans – and that is when I made my mistake. One fan in particular took tremendous exception to the way I was doing my job. He questioned my parentage and hurled all kinds of other abuse at me. I was aware of what he was saying about me, and so was the Dundee full-back, Alex Hamilton. He was quite a character, as well as being a great Scotland international. He came over to me and said, ‘You see that guy in the crowd? If he shouts at you again, and you get a wee chance, tell him that he’s a mug because he’s paid to get in.’ It would have been a stinging retort because Celtic were struggling against us at the time.
Sure enough, the moment came when the ball went out of play and landed in a big puddle in front of where this guy was. The ball-boy was a bit slow getting to the ball because it was in the puddle, so I just went in and retrieved it. As I did this the guy started up again, telling me what a terrible player I was, the worst he