Dundee travel to Perth this Friday to take on St Johnstone in front of BT Sport TV cameras and so we take a look at striker John Sutton who has played for both clubs. Sutton is currently plying his trade at McDiarmid Park and is remembered fondly at Dens Park for scoring the winner in two Dundee derbies.
John Sutton was born in Norwich on Boxing Day 1983 and started his football career as a trainee as Tottenham Hotspur where he scored 25 goals in 26 games at Under-17 level and represented England at both Under-15 and Under-16.
It was while he was at White Hart Lane that John was loaned out to Carlisle United where he scored three goals in seven games but after failing to break into the Spurs’ first team upon his return to London, he negotiated his release and signing a months contract with Swindon Town.
In 2003 Sutton signed for Scottish First Division side Raith Rovers and the 6ft 1in forward made a quick impression in Fife with 13 goals in 20 games. This led to several clubs enquiring about his availability in January including Valencia where he spent three days on trial and Dundee but it was English Championship side Millwall who secured his services for £60,000.
John failed to make an impression at The Den, playing just four league matches but he did contribute to Millwall’s run to the 2004 FA Cup Final, coming on as a substitute against Tranmere Rovers in their quarter-final replay.
In the summer of 2004 therefore John returned to Scotland for a season long loan with Dundee meaning Jim Duffy finally got his man. John made his mark on a pre-season tour of Northern Ireland and Eire scoring a hat-trick in a 5-0 win over Clonmel Town; a match arranged by Dundee’s shirt sponsor Magners who have their brewery in the town. He also scored against Portadown and then a double against Falkirk in a 2-1 win for the official opening of the Falkirk Stadium and made his competitive debut in the first game of the 2004/05 season at home to Hearts.
It was the following week on Sunday 15th August that Sutton really introduced himself to the Dark Blue faithful when he scored the winning goal against Dundee United at Tannadice in front of the SKY Sports cameras. Sutton was partnering Steve Lovell up front and it was Lovell who opened the scoring from the spot after 17 minutes after Ian Anderson was upended in the box.
Two minutes after the break Lovell turned provider when he whipped a cross into the United box and John Sutton ran in at the near post to smash it low into the back of the Arabs’ net to score his first competitive goal for Dundee.
With 90 minutes on the clock Alan Archibald pulled one back for United so when Hugh Dallas blew the final whistle seconds later, it meant that John’s goal was the winner in the derby.
Scoring the winner against United is enough to endear yourself to the Dundee support for eternity but not content with doing it once, Sutton did it again when the clubs next met in November.
This time in front of 9845 at Dens United found themselves down to nine men after an hour when both Chris Innes and Mark Wilson where both sent off within five minutes of each other but the Dark Blues struggled to make their advantage count.
As the clock ticked down the Dundee support were getting increasingly agitated at their side’s inability break down the nine men but with just four minutes left John Sutton popped up to head home the winner with a huge helping hand from United keeper Paul Jarvie.
Out wide on the right Mark Fotheringham send a high looping cross over towards the back post and when it was met by John Sutton on the corner of the six yard box, he headed it towards goal. The angle wasn’t great and the power in the header was fairly tame but somehow the ball bounced right in front of United’s No. 1 Paul Jarvie and squirmed through his legs.
For an instant all four stands at Dens Park were in shock; unsure of what they had just witnessed but John Sutton was away, fist pumping towards the Main Stand until he was mobbed by his ecstatic team mates. Dundee had won the second derby of the season 1-0 and were now undefeated in the last eight and despite Jarvie’s blunder, it was Sutton who was the hero, writing himself into Dundee folklore with his second derby winner.
In total Sutton scored eight goals in 35 appearances during his loan spell including a strike in the remarkable 4-4 draw with Hibs at Easter Road two weeks after the first derby. John had given Dundee the lead after seven minutes but five minutes into the second half The Dark Blues were 4-1 down. Cue a fantastic comeback from Dundee and after goals from Brady and Larsen (the press loved that Dundee had a Sutton and Larsen front line like John’s brother Chris and his strike partner Henrik at Celtic), Jonay Hernadez sparked wild celebrations in the away end with his last minute equaliser.
At the end of the season Dundee were relegated meaning any permanent move for Sutton to Dens unlikely due to the inevitable cost cutting and in August he joined St Mirren on a two year deal.
After scoring 30 goals in Paisley he joined Wycombe Wanderers as a free agent in 2007 but returned to Scotland 12 months later when he joined Motherwell for the first of two spells. His time at Fir Park, split by two years at Hearts and on loan at Central Coast Mariners in Australia, was the most productive of his career with 79 goals in 141 appearances which included three goals in the Europa League and a runners-up medal in the 2011 Scottish Cup Final.
Last season John finished as Motherwell’s top scorer for a second time and scored The Steelmen’s third from the spot in the 3-0 second leg Premiership play-off win over Rangers which saw the Fir Park side avoid relegation.
In the summer Sutton signed a pre contract agreement with St Johnstone and joined them on July 1st and scored on his competitive debut against his old club Hearts at Tynecastle.
Dundee will hoping of course that he does not come back to haunt another old club on Friday at McDiarmid but his place in Dark Blue history is assured thanks to those two priceless winners against our greatest foes.
Appearances, Goals:
League: 20 + 12 sub, 8 goals
Scottish Cup: 1 sub
League Cup: 2
Totals: 35, 8 goals
