Match report

Match report

Your correspondent’s most enduring memory of a derby game was in northeast Scotland on a Tuesday night in April 1993. The rivalry between the two Dundee teams (Dundee, the dark blues, and Dundee United who play in tangerine and black) is just a rivalry, not out-and-out hatred, so after coming second best in a coin toss with a dark-blue-supporting friend your correspondent found himself deep in enemy territory amongst the most passionate section of Dundee fans known as ‘The Derry’. The game was legendary Dundee United manager Jim McLean’s last ever derby and in his honour our Dundee United heroes ran rampant, stuffing four goals past Dundee without reply, engendering a huge explosion of tangerine joy in the away end. I forget the details of what happened next but ‘the Derry’, already humiliated by the thrashing their team was taking on the pitch, took umbrage at a particular refereeing decision and decided to demonstrate their displeasure by staging a pitch invasion. This particular state of affairs led your intrepid football writer to be somewhat fearful for his own life, lest it be discovered that he was tangerine to the bone. Fortunately, the Tayside Polis got the situation under control and your correspondent will not underestimate an unarmed 5-foot-2-inches-tall Scottish policewoman for the rest of his life.

This story is by way of contrast to the U10 Blue versus Red derby this past Saturday. Not only do these kids train together every Wednesday night under the same coaching staff, but this week, due to the Reds squad being down several players, the leadership of both teams put their heads together and decided it might be best to mix the teams up to allow everyone to get on the pitch and enjoy a game of football. In addition, the coaches/dads took advantage of the friendly match format to coach the players through the game a little bit more than is usually permitted, emphasising some of lessons from training and the season so far and giving the newer players a softer start to their season.

The game was a fascinating, pulsating affair, with plenty of chances at both ends, exciting goalmouth action, dangerous set-pieces and a reasonable spread of possession. In line with normal non-competitive rules there was no keeping score, but both teams gave their all on the park. There were a few disappointed faces due to the fact that they didn’t all play with their regular teammates this weekend but getting used to playing with different players will be important in their future sporting lives and normal service will resume next week. There are no special mentions for players either this week, save for Evany Nunn and Charlie Hartas who have both registered with the club in the last couple of weeks and we welcome them and their families with open arms.

As a result of this, all position rotations, captaincies etc will be held over until the next round. The winner this past Saturday was definitely football, unlike on the 20th of April 1993 when the winner was undoubtably Dundee United.