Remembering Ralphie

Something of a pilgrimage trip to Tannadice today, for the league visit of Kilmarnock. Of course, it wasn't really to see United host Killie in a foot-of-table clash between two struggling teams. It was to be there to honour the memory of a footballing hero of my youth - Ralph Milne - who died earlier in the week, all too young, aged just 54. The same age as another footballing hero of my childhood - Billy Bremner. If Bremner was a player who I followed almost exclusively from afar, on TV and through newspaper match reports, Ralphie was a member of that United team I watched from the terraces in my late teens and early twenties.
I was late to start watching football live, growing up in a family that while interested in the game, didn't make the bi-weekly visit to watch the local team. It was only after moving away that I came back to the terraces to Tannadice.
As a student in Durham I went to see a few matches - a short train journey to St James' Park to see the Toon, a slightly longer bus trip to Roker Park to watch Sunderland and a little further afield to see 'Boro, Darlington and Hartlepool. Even train trips to see my 'English team', Leeds United, at their Elland Road home. But moving to Durham seemed to strengthen my allegiance to the other United, back in Dundee. Staying up late in the JCR to watch the European highlights as they put five past Borussia Munchengladbach.  Sitting there in the flickering TV dark along with a few of the other Scots in college, waiting for the round-up of 'other British' teams in action, after most people had left when the main highlights of the top English sides had finished.
So back in Dundee for the holidays my Dad and I went to a couple of matches at Tannadice - taking seats in the main stand to watch United play Hibs and Airdrie. After that introduction I went to the terraces on the opposite side of the ground. Mostly with my ex-school friend D who was a regular visitor to the ground. We stood where he usually stood - high on the steep northern terrace, close to the edge of the penalty box around the goal in front of The Shed.
That's where I stood to watch that great United team win some of the matches that would lead to their first, and so far only, league championship title. Games before term started, or during the holidays. The Christmas break at the end of 1982 when United put seven past Kilmarnock and then five past Motherwell in consecutive home games without conceding a goal. The Killie match was just 1-0 at half-time but then United were just relentless in the second forty-five minutes. Ralphie scored a great individual goal from half way, simply running past defenders as if they weren't there. And he was part of a sweeping move from goalie to goal in just six touches that is up there with the best team goals I have ever seen.
All in that season that was headed to the dramatic final game at Dens Park when over 29,000 people crammed into the home of our local rivals. A game that United 'only' had to win to clinch the league. And after four minutes Ralphie chipped the Dundee keeper to set us on our way. For that goal he will remain forever in the hearts of United fans.
At today's game there was a minute's silence before kick off but then a minute of applause on that fourth minute. Older fans like me expressing appreciation for the memories while others too young to have seen him play showed their respect for a famous player in the club's past. Sadly the current team did not come out well in comparison with the clips of that great United team up on the big screen. Back then we turned up expecting United to win. Today's fans probably more than half expect them to lose. Even to a team as poor as Killie. Which they somehow contrived to do against a Killie team that until today hadn't won a league game. After equalising Killie's first half penalty with a penalty of their own, United did create chances, but failed to take any of them and almost inevitably conceded a late goal after an only partially cleared free-kick to lose the match. But it wasn't just the defeat - the team seemed lacklustre and passionless, even unfit. If I had been playing Championship Manager I'd have sent them all for extra fitness training.
And yet strangely I enjoyed the day. I'd got a seat at the front of the upper tier of the north stand, as close to where we used to stand on those steep terraces, affectionately known as the Cliffs. There is probably a whole other blog entry that could be written about the changes in Scottish football that have taken place between those two games against Killie. Today's match was played in front of something over 8000 fans, even with admission prices halved to encourage more fans in to pay tribute to Ralphie. But looking back, that pre-Christmas game in 1982, with a home team heading for a title (rather than relegation), was watched by an even smaller, mostly standing crowd.
And another political blog post would consider players like Ralphie and Billy Bremner, escaping Scotland's impoverished housing schemes to play football at the highest level and yet dying in their early fifties. Ralphie's struggles with drink and gambling are well documented, a product of his times and the Scottish drinking culture. Strange to think he was only a few years older than me. We would have been at school together at the same time, if not in the same year, had my parents not followed that middle-class route to better schooling for their children by moving house into the catchment area of a more affluent and successful secondary school.
Apologies for a rather rambling blip (if anyone has got this far) - just a few thoughts brought to mind by the day.
The picture was actually taken on my way into the stand, looking towards The Shed end, with the stands and floodlights of Dens Park, home to Dundee FC in the background. Scene of Ralphie's greatest moment.
And the second picture of the day are the thoughts of one of Ralphie's team mates. Words that Luggy - Paul Sturrock - wrote on a fan's website that someone got printed on a banner to put up by the entrance to the ground.