“When we get together, we dinnae talk about football or the old days. We can’t remember much!”
Davie Dodds, scanning a packed room of old pals, is being glib.
A cavalcade of greats have assembled for the Dundee United legends golf day at the Fairmont Hotel in St. Andrews — and Courier Sport finds Dodds’ recollections every bit as sharp as his erstwhile attacking instincts.
From Malpas to McAlpine, the clubhouse is a snapshot of past glories; a heady history in which Dodds is steeped.
Dens Park memories
Peculiarly for an ex-Tannadice hero, Dodds’ successes at Dens Park, in particular, remain iconic.
🏆 Classic Final #8 🏆
Davie Dodds and Paul Sturrock (x2) found the net for @dundeeunitedfc as they beat Dundee to win the 1980/81 League Cup Final!
📆 06/12/80
⚽️ Dundee United 3-0 Dundee
🏆 League Cup Final
📍 Dens Park, Dundee pic.twitter.com/dfEv43k5Ca— SPFL (@spfl) November 29, 2018
It’s little wonder that he winces a little when the conversation tangentially meanders towards Dundee potentially leaving their historic home.
It was the venue where Dodds broke the deadlock in the 1980 League Cup final, sending United on their way to retaining the trophy with a 3-0 win.
“I loved playing at Dens Park,” Dodds continued. “It was a great stadium, lovely big pitch and a cracking atmosphere. It’s a pity to see the state it’s in now.
“It was actually a toss-up for where the [1980 League Cup] final was going to be, either Tannadice or Dens Park.
“They flipped a coin for the venue and we were delighted when it landed on Dens! We didn’t get beat there — and that’s how it played out.
“Jim [McLean] wasn’t much for celebrating. We knew he’d say, ‘right, that’s that, on to the next one!’”
Premier party
The next one would be the big one.
Dundee United secured their first and only Scottish top-flight title in 1983 and, once again, Dens Park was the scene of the victory, with a 2-1 win assuring McLean’s men made history.
Dodds scored 28 goals that season, cultivating a wonderful relationship with Paul Sturrock.
He is almost comically modest, professing to have been ‘lucky enough to get on the end of a few deliveries’ from the likes of Eamonn Bannon and Sturrock.
“We knew we had the capability to go on and win the league,” continued Dodds. “We had seven internationals in our team at the time — great players reaching their potential.
“To be successful and win a league, you need to have togetherness, good players and a bit of luck.
“And you need a game-plan. I was lucky enough to work under Jim McLean, Alex Ferguson, Graeme Souness and Jock Stein during my career — and Jim was the best coach out of the four of them.
“He was so far ahead of his time.”
That night in Italy
Domestic glories allowed United to make their mark abroad.
Dodds rippled the net in arguably the club’s most famous — or perhaps more accurately, infamous — continental contest, helping the Tangerines to a 2-0 win over Roma at Tannadice.
In the second leg of that 1984 European Cup semi-final in Rome, the hosts claimed a 3-0 victory and progressed to the final against Liverpool.
In 2011, Riccardo Viola, son of the late ex-Roma president Dino, revealed that £50,000 had been given to referee Michel Vautrot through an intermediary.
Allegations of drug use by the Italians also abounded.
“We had a good enough team to win the European Cup,” Dodds recalls definitively.
“And we were helped by the fact a lot of teams underestimated us. Scottish football maybe wasn’t as respected as it should have been in Europe.
“We also got decent draws. We kept away from the big guns until the semi-final. Roma were a good side — lots of international players — so that 2-0 win at Tannadice was something special.
“The whole tie has maybe been overshadowed by the man in the middle [Vautrot] and whatever envelopes he may, or may not, have received! It was a bitter, bitter blow.”
Yet, Dodds is not overwhelmed by resentment. His view is: at least Roma were good.
The defeat that hurt more than Roma
Dodds saves his laments for the 1981/82 UEFA Cup campaign.
That was the one; the European trophy United were ready to grasp.
Instead, they crashed out following a 3-0 collapse (3-2 aggregate defeat) against Radnicki Nis of the former Yugoslavia.
“My biggest regret was losing to Radnicki Nis,” he rues. “That was a quarter-final and we beat them 2-0 at Tannadice. They were not a good side.
“We went across there and lost a couple of soft goals and got beat 3-0.
“That was my biggest ever disappointment in Europe because I felt we really could have gone all the way that year.”
Shunned Celtic swoop
By the time United did reach a European showpiece — losing to IFK Goteborg in the 1987 UEFA Cup final — Dodds was an Aberdeen player, having initially departed Tannadice for a brief stint with Neuchatel Xamax in 1986.
“I had been at United for 12 years and we’d won the League Cup and the title. I just wanted a different challenge,” continued Dodds.
“Wee Jim had received offers for me before — one from Celtic when I was 23, and one from Liverpool when I was 18.
“He turned them down point-blank.
“I would have considered Liverpool. It would have been a great experience.”
And Celtic? Would the boyhood Rangers fan have countenanced a career at Parkhead? That’s a no comment.
With the Bhoys and the Reds both snubbed by McLean, Dodds would go on to score 150 goals in 369 games for United.
“You don’t give it a second’s thought! You don’t realise the scale of what you were part of until many, many years afterwards,” reflects Dodds.
“When supporters keep saying, ‘what a side, what a side’ then you start to think, ‘aye, maybe we did okay’.
“But, at the time, you don’t think about that. Why would you?
“We were just doing our jobs the best we could.”
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