Paul Strachan responded to Tom Black’s piece on October 28 about Dundee FC’s remarkable record as crowd-pullers.
“Re your article on Dundee record crowds, there is some doubt about the attendance figure recorded for Corinthians v Dundee (60,000),” said Paul.
“This has been discussed on the website Scottish League.net in recent years.”
Paul reckons the Corinthians v Dundee game on April 4, 1896, pulled in a measly 2,000, and continued, saying: “I was hoping someone can confirm the attendance for this game.
“As far as I can see from newspaper reports at the time it was 2,000 but in Norrie Price’s ‘They Wore the Dark Blue’ it is down as 60,000!
“Additionally, Norrie states this was a British record crowd at the time.
“There’s quite a difference there!
“The Scotland-England game that same day (with five Corinthians players turning out for England, which would also suggest the fixture would be even less attractive for fans) attracted 55,000.
“This was described as the largest attendance ever in reports of the day.
“Everything would point to Norrie getting it wrong on this occasion but could he be getting the fixture mixed up with another?
“Was there a friendly involving Dundee that attracted this attendance?”
Paul continued: “I think it has to be a mistake.
“I don’t know the capacity of the Queen’s Club (where the game was played) but I doubt very much if it was anything near 60,000.
“The FA Cup Final that year at Crystal Palace attracted 48,836, which was at the time a record for the competition.
“It’s hard to see more people turning up for a friendly between a below-strength Corinthians side and a Scottish club few in London would have heard of and with no real achievements of note to their name.
“Corinthians played Queen’s Park at Queen’s Club three weeks earlier when there was a crowd of around 5,000 present.
“QP would have been a far bigger attraction than Dundee.
“Also I think it should be clarified that the 1952 Scottish Cup Final attendance of 136,274 (not 136,990) between Motherwell and Dundee is a record for two provincial clubs in a cup final.
“The record attendance for a Scottish Cup Final was in 1937 when Celtic beat Aberdeen 2-1 in front of 147,365.”
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