Dear Members,
Three consecutive home wins, nine points secured and eleven goals scored – it’s a good time to be a season ticketholder! While recent results at home have been very positive unfortunately the away results have not been so good. The quality of the attacking football and the pace and dynamism of players such as Seb Palmer-Houlden, Scott Tiffoney and Oluwaseun Adewumi combined with the skillful probing of Lyall Cameron and the incredible work rate of Simon Murray is making for some great entertainment. The defence is clearly still a work in progress, however, and injuries to the likes of Ziyad Larkeche and Clark Robertson are certainly not helping but the arrival of Sean Kelly on a short term deal should help and there is plenty of reason for optimism. We welcome Tony Docherty’s comments around strengthening the squad in the transfer window and if the defence can be tightened up it could be a very positive end to the season.
Results are not the only thing to be encouraged about at home. The much maligned pitch last season has been replaced with a much healthier looking playing surface that stood up well to Storm Bert and the inclement weather we have seen in recent weeks. The Club and the groundstaff deserve credit for addressing this issue and enabling the focus to remain on winning points and climbing the league table.
With all that in mind it has to be hoped that more fans are tempted to come along to matches and we would certainly encourage all members to be reminding their family, friends and colleagues that half season tickets are now available from the Club.
While the pitch held up well and the Hibs match thankfully went ahead unfortunately it was necessary to postpone the AGM which had been scheduled to take place earlier that day. We did not believe it was reasonable or advisable to ask members to travel, in some cases from other parts of Scotland and the central belt, in those conditions.
The AGM has been rescheduled for 11.30am on 1 February 2025 at the Dundee Social Club.
We look forward to seeing as many members there as possible. Hopefully the prospect of a free prize draw and a nice cup of tea or coffee will entice a good number of you along to Thistle Street!
Among the topics for discussion at the AGM will be our search for new talent to join the Board. We are keen to hear from Dundee fans who would like to get involved and have interests or backgrounds in areas such as membership, social media and events/campaigns/fundraising. If you know of anyone who might be interested please do ask them to get in contact with us or to attend the AGM.
Another piece of news from the Board is that sadly Ross Day has stepped down. Ross has been a mainstay of the Board for two years and has made a substantial contribution. His knowledge and experience will be missed and we would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all his efforts on behalf of Dee4Life.
Back to Club matters and it was encouraging to see the proposed training complex at Riverside receive planning approval from Dundee City Council. The benefits to the Club are clear in terms of establishing a dedicated high quality training facility with grass and all weather pitches and in taking this component out of the plans for the new stadium at Camperdown. It also pleasing to see the community benefits being offered at the Riverside complex and the Club is to be commended for linking up with Riverside West End FC to allow their various teams to use the facilities.
It is also going to be interesting to learn more about the Club’s new partnership with Mexican side CF Monterrey, known as the Rayados, and see what the outputs might be from a player development perspective in particular. We will be curious to see if Antonio Portales will be joined by some more of his countrymen from the Rayados Youth Academy in the coming months.
I will wrap up by wishing all of you the very best for the festive season. I hope you and your families have a wonderful Christmas and New Year and are in fine fettle for the first of our two encounters with the lot from down the road next month on 2 January. Between that and our Scottish Cup tie there is plenty to look forward to.
Best wishes,
Keith Winter
Dee4Life Chair
Dee4Life 