Pat Liney

Image is detail of the original and used by kind permission of DC Thomson & Co Ltd.

Pat Liney signed for Dundee Football Club on the 12th of October 1957 from Ayrshire football team Dalry Thistle.

Pat’s Dundee FC debut was on the 10th of May 1958, the last day of the 1957/1958 season against Rangers at Ibrox Park, when Dundee regular goalkeeper Bill Brown took ill and Pat was thrown into the deep end. Pat coped remarkably and kept his first clean sheet in a 1-0 win courtesy of Alan Cousin’s goal. 

As understudy to the great Bill Brown, and with Brown’s departure to Tottenham Hotspur prior to the 1959-1960 season, Pat took over in the sticks. Pat’s next game was a Scottish League Cup tie away to Hibernian in a 3-1 victory and he would then be an ever-present for the rest of the season.

Pat quickly established himself as the no.1 appearing  in 39 out of the 43 games played in 1960-61. 

The 1961-1962 season commenced with an unbeaten tour of Iceland. On the domestic front, there was disappointment in the League Cup with the Dark Blues not being able to qualify from their group. 

The league campaign started off very well for Dundee with only one loss and two draws before the Scottish Cup tie against Pats boyhood heroes, St Mirren managed by former Dark Blue Bobby Flavell. 

In the build up to the game, Pat’s father, also a Buddie supporter told Pat that if St Mirren get a penalty, their penalty taker, Jim Clunie would take it and his method was to hammer it into the top right corner. St Mirren didn’t get a penalty that day and Dundee left the Scottish Cup tournament with a 1-0 defeat.

After the cup defeat, Dundee suffered a dramatic and sudden loss of league form and lost their next four games. Pat recalls:

“a lady and her daughter presented me with a lucky charm. It was a seal carved from wood and covered in skin from a seal from the Tay, it had the team’s colours around its neck in ribbon and the little girl said it always brought her luck”.

The next game was a vital 0-0 draw against Rangers, who were Dundee’s main title rivals.  The result was a boost for the Dark Blues and from then on in Dundee were undefeated until the end of the season which led to the club becoming Scottish League Champions for the first time in the clubs history.

Pat’s role in securing that title has passed into folklore. On the 25th of April against St Mirren, Dundee were neck and neck with Rangers for the League title with Rangers were playing Aberdeen at Pittodrie. Dundee were 1-0 up and St Mirren were awarded a penalty, a nervous Jim Clunie placed the ball on the penalty spot and Pat remembering his father’s advice said to himself

“go left” 

Clunie thundered the ball to the top right hand corner, Pat flung himself to his left and saved the penalty, a few minutes later Dundee went upfield to score a second goal and the game finished 2-0. The crowd waited at the final whistle within Dens Park and the tannoy announcer said that Aberdeen had defeated Rangers 1-0, there was an eruption of noise as the crowd knew the route to the Championship was in Dundee’s own hands at Muirton.

Dundee secured a 3-0 victory at Muirton Park on the 28th of April 1962 to crown the Dee Champions of Scotland.

Dundee legend and top ever goal scorer Alan Gilzean said ;

“Pat Liney’s contribution to Dundee’s Championship season should never be underestimated, and the fact that he was  as an ever present that year speaks for itself. He was rock solid and never let us down”.

For a goalkeeper at 5 foot 10 inches, considered nowadays as small for a goalkeeper, Pat with his reading of the game and his quick reactions, more than made up for his lack of height. Pat had 28 clean sheets in his 126 appearances for the club, eight in the Championship and crucially two clean sheets in the last two games.

Pat’s last game for the club was against Hearts at Dens Park in a 2-2 draw before being transferred to his local club St Mirren. 

At some point in the years after leaving Dundee Pat lost his Championship medal, but in 2005 it appeared at an auction house in Yorkshire and Pat was happily reunited with his medal. 

Pat went on to host pre-match hospitality at Dens Park, looking after and telling many a story of his time at Dundee, delighting the supporters. The club honoured Pat by making him Honorary President of Dundee Football Club and inducting him into Dundee Football Clubs Hall of Fame in 2011.