Drew Peters agreed with Neil Scally’s assertion that the Stobswell Boys U/15 team they both played in was far from being a one-man team.
Original contributor Jimmy Stewart marvelled at Peter Lorimer’s form when with the Stobbie team — great form that took him to Leeds United and the honours that followed such as league and European titles.
Not to mention, of course, Scotland caps and World Cup finals appearances.
“I must say that, when I read Jimmy Stewart’s description of our school team (Stobswell), I had the same reaction as Neil Scally,” said Drew, now living in Canada with his wife Sally.
“As part of the ‘supporting cast’ playing every Saturday alongside Lorimer for three years at Stobswell, I have to weigh in and agree wholeheartedly with Neil that we were far from a one-man band.
“Great as Peter Lorimer was — and he was a wonderful player — he did have a terrific bunch of players around him.
“In the afternoon, Peter played for Broughty, who did not offer the same support as his school team-mates.
“If you can check it out, his ‘statistics’ were not as good as in his school team.
“I have enclosed a couple different team photos from different years and, as you can see, we had pretty much the same team each year.
“Just so Jimmy Stewart knows, we had four Dundee Schoolboys in the team, and also three Scottish Schoolboy trialists.
“I think the score in that game against St Michael’s was actually 10-3 and my take is that Lorimer netted ‘only’ seven.
“To be fair to St Michael’s, the following week ‘The Mikies’ beat us 4-3 in Dundee United Cup Final.
“Even now, after all these years, I do remember each of our team from those school years.
“I can honestly say that we were much under-rated but I also have to admit we were fortunate to play together for a few years and also very fortunate to play with Peter Lorimer.”
Alan Moore, of Monifieth, came in with a Lorimer query after seeing the recent articles about him.
“Was there ever a chance of Peter Lorimer returning to Dundee to manage either Dundee United or Dundee?” he asked.
There is really nothing official on this and the only time I heard this mooted was when Davie White left the Dens hot-seat.
Lorimer was said to have been approached as a player-manager but it was his testimonial year at Leeds and he felt he could not leave the Elland Road club at that time.
Tommy Gemmell was then appointed to replace White, and Lorimer eventually moved to Canada to play.
Even when Gemmell left after Dundee were relegated in April 1980, Lorimer’s name was mentioned again for the Dens manager’s job but nothing came of it.
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