George Christie Player Profile

Biography

The idea of a player coming out of the Junior ranks to become a hero for Dundee was not a new experience for the club when Craig Robertson joined up for three games as a trialist from Lochee United in 2011, because exactly sixty years before, George Christie did just that and ended up winning two League Cup winners’ medals. Christie joined the Dark Blues from Aberdeen Junior side Banks O’ Dee in 1948 and ended up making 250 appearances over the next ten years, including three appearances in major cup finals at Hampden and scoring in a famous derby victory when Dundee put seven past United.

George made his debut for Dundee on November 18th 1950 away to Third Lanark and with Billy Steel having joined the club just eight weeks earlier, left winger Christie formed part of a new-look Dark Blue forward line. The following week, on his home debut, Christie scored twice in a 5-0 win over St Mirren and it was the first of his forty-seven goals that he would score over the next eight years.

Christie competed with Jimmy Andrews and George Hill for the left wing slot and when George started to establish himself in the side, ‘Pud’ Hill was switched to the right as Christie became the preferred partner for Steel on the left-wing.

On January 27th, George had his first taste of the Dundee derby when The Dark Blues drew ‘B’ Division Dundee United in the first round of the Scottish Cup at Dens but after being 2-0 up at half time, The Dee unaccountably relaxed and had to settle for a 2-2 draw. George was dropped in favour of Hill for the replay in which Billy Steel scored the only goal at Tannadice on a Wednesday afternoon four days later, but he was back in the side for Dundee’s next match away to St Johnstone in the second round.

A record crowd of 29,972 packed into Muirton Park for Dundee’s tie against another ‘B’ Division side and after former Dens Parker Jack Malloch gave Saints an early lead, an Alfie Boyd penalty and then counters from Christie and Ernie Ewen gave George Anderson’s team a 3-1 win.

The Scottish Cup dream ended in the quarter-final at home to Raith in March when Christie’s goal couldn’t prevent Rovers winning 2-1 but there was to be cup glory for George and Dundee just a few months later, when they went all the way to the League Cup Final and defeated Rangers 3-2 in one of the most dramatic finals ever played at in Mount Florida.

The 1951/52 season kicked off with the League Cup sectional ties and Christie came into the side for the fifth tie against Hearts at Tynecastle after Jimmy Andrews had started the season on the left wing. In the next match at Stark’s Park, Dundee gained a modicum of revenge for that Scottish Cup defeat to Raith by winning 3-1 and George was again on the scoresheet, this time with a brace.

Dundee scraped through the section on seven points ahead of Hearts on goal average and George was now an ever present en route to the final. He played in both legs of the 2-1 quarter-final aggregate win over Falkirk, and in the semi-final against Motherwell at Ibrox, Christie opened the scoring as Dundee surged to a 5-1 win. Three late goals from Dundee gave the scoreline a more flattering look than the passage of play deserved but The Dee cared not a jot as they were in their first major final in twenty-five years.

In the final, Dundee would meet Rangers who boasted no fewer than eight Scottish internationalists but The Dark Blues could go into the game with confidence having beaten the Ibrox side 1-0 at Dens four weeks earlier. The week before the final, Dundee defeated Celtic at Dens 2-1 with George scoring the first and the side that lined up in front of 92,325 was the same as the semi-final win with Christie and Steel on the left.

Both of those players were to have a major bearing on the game as they were to be involved in setting up goals at crucial times. Despite Dundee controlling most of the early first half play, Rangers took the lead in twenty-one minutes, but just two minutes after the interval Dundee got their just rewards and drew level when Bobby Flavell fired home a Christie cross.

After being pegged back twice, Dundee would get a last minute winner to send the Dark Blue fans into delirium. They partied like they hadn’t partied for years and huge crowds gave the players a rousing reception when they arrived back home.

A month after the final Jimmy Andrews joined West Ham for £10,000 after being unable to dislodge Christie from the left-wing berth and George now made that position his own.

On January 2nd, Dundee met Rangers for the third time that season and made it a hat-trick of wins with a 2-1 victory at Ibrox and it was a memorable afternoon for George when he scored the winner after Steel had pulled Dundee back on level terms.

That same month Dundee embarked on another ‘Road to Hampden’, this time in the Scottish Cup and they made it all the way to their second final of the season after dispatching Ayr United 4-0 at Dens in the first round. Christie was an ever-present throughout the Scottish Cup campaign and in the second round away to non-league Wigtown, he scored in a more than comfortable 7-1 win.

The campaign however was to ultimately end in disappointment as Motherwell were to run out 4-0 winners in the final in a scoreline that reversely flattered the Steelmen in the same way Dundee’s victory in the League Cup semi had done.

It meant a Scottish Cup runners-up medal for George to add to his League Cup winners’ one from earlier in the season but just six months later George added another winners’ medal to his collection when Dundee successfully defended their League Cup.

Their defence of the League Cup started with a sectional win over Raith Rovers at Dens and Christie started the new season by scoring the winner against the men from Fife.

This time Dundee qualified comfortably from their section and in their nine games on the way to the final against ‘B’ Division Kilmarnock, Christie was an ever-present and took his usual number eleven shirt for the final against the Rugby Park men.

Dundee were strong favourites to lift their second League Cup but Killie belied their lower league status and took the game to Dundee from the off. George injured his shoulder in the first half and needed a pain killing injection at half time and nearly gave Dundee the lead with his long range shot fisted onto the bar by Niven just after the rbeak. His dashing runs down the wing were now starting to cause Kilmarnock problems and within the final eight minutes Bobby Flavell grabbed a double to win the cup.

Again there were joyous scenes amongst players and fans but their celebrations were curtailed a little due to a sudden downpour of rain. Fireworks, bugles and whistles however greeted George and his team mates when they returned to the city when they again went on a tour of the city on top of a bus with George’s shoulder injury almost preventing him from climbing on top. He was one of an elite group of seven who had played in both winning finals and who are the only Dundee players to have won two major trophies with The Dee.

At the end of the season, Christie was part of a sixteen-strong party who went on a two-month long trip to South Africa where they played a marathon seventeen-strong schedule. In those games, Dundee won fifteen, drew one and lost one to the South African national side and George was on target nine times.

The following season however was a bit of a disappointment and started off poorly with the Dark Blues failing to get out of their League Cup section as Partick Thistle went through on goal average. The season ended on a high however with a 6-0 win over Jags in the final league game and seven days later, George was on target in a 9-3 win against Dundee United in a joint testimonial for Dundee’s Jimmy Toner and United’s George Grant.

If such large score in a testimonial means little in the grand scheme of things, then Dundee made it count when it really mattered when they put seven past their nearest rivals in a League Cup quarter-final tie at Dens on September 12th 1955. George got one of the goals in a 7-3 win on a day in which Jimmy Chalmers was the hat-trick hero. The match has been immortalised in the famous Johnnie Scobie song still belted out today where The Dees sing, “So I went along to Dens Park, to see the famous eleven, and when we got there, the terracing was bare, but we gave United seven!”

With United languishing in the lower league in those day, derbies were few and far between but in his time at Dens, Christie was involved in four winning derbies and one draw, scoring once.

In his last year with Dundee, season 1957/58, one of those derby wins was a 1-0 Forfarshire Cup victory at Tannadice but in his last game for The Dark Blues, a much bigger scalp was claimed when Rangers were defeated 1-0 at Ibrox just a few weeks after they had defeated Celtic 5-3 at Dens.

His last goal for Dundee came the week before that Celtic win when he scored in a 7-2 victory over Queen of the South in Dumfries and the hero that day was youngster Alan Cousin who grabbed a hat-trick as well at the winner at Ibrox on the final day.

Changes were taking place at Dens as manager Willie Thornton was starting to blood the youngsters and that season saw 1962 Championship winners Alan Cousin, Alex Hamilton, George McGeachie, Pat Liney, Hugh Robertson, Alan Gilzean and Bobby Cox all make their mark. Thornton’s babes were starting to grab the headlines and many of the old guard were being moved on and Christie was shipped out to Third Lanark in the summer.

In later years George would move back to his native North-East and managed Deveronvale in the Highland League where he signed future Dee Kevin Bremner from schools football and he sadly died in Aberdeen aged eighty in January 2008.

Christie played in a golden age at Dens where victories over the Old Firm and winning cups were the norm and alongside team mate Jimmy Toner, he made the step up from Junior football to become a darling amongst the Dens Park masses.