A Look into History 224

At the end of season 1965-66 Dundee United were in fifth place behind Champions Celtic then Rangers, Kilmarnock and Dunfermline Athletic so qualified for the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and, with a first round bye, were drawn to play Barcelona in the Second Round over two legs. Their first leg match was at the Nou Camp on October 25th 1966 and thanks to Billy Hainey 13min and Finn Seemann, 59 min penalty, a signing in 1965 from Lyn Oslo FC, came away with a 2-1 win. This success lit up the city of Dundee and everyone wanted to be at the second leg on November 16th 1966 so 28,000 crammed into Tannadice Park, a ground record never to be beaten and as it is now all seater with a capacity of 14,223.

Our Match Programme, a special Souvenir edition was all in colour, very rare at club level at the time being conveniently Printed and Published by D C Thomson who were based in Dundee and famous for the Beano, Dandy and Sunday Post newspaper.

It was priced one shilling and the opening notes gave fans a taste of what they were playing as Barcelona were the holders having beaten Zaragoza 4 3 on aggregate in an all Spanish final. A Chairmans’ welcome both in English and Spanish was followed by the team line-ups and very comprehensive pen pictures and a full colour team photo across the middle pages. All the Barcelona players details took up a page with individual colour photos of them all and finally a match report on the game at the Nou camp.

On the back page were more photos of the trip to Barcelona. All in all a superb edition well worthy of its title 'Fairs Cities’ Cup Souvenir.' Ian Mitchell scored in 18 min and Billy Hainey 49 min for a 4-1 aggregate.

Further progress was not forthcoming for Dundee United as they went to Turin in the third round and were soundly beaten by Juventus 3-0. Although some pride was restored with a 1-0 win at Tannadice in front of 20,500 it was back to domestic fayre and a 9th place of 18 was secured with Celtic League and Cup champions. Dundee United were beaten 0-1 by Aberdeen in the Scottish Cup semi-final.

In 1987 Dundee United played Barcelona again winning 1-0 at home and 2 1 away. How many clubs can boast a 100% record against Barcelona in European football?

Robert Errington
President & League Historian