Dundee lost two points in the promotion race with a 1-1 draw at the Kilmac Stadium against Inverness Caley Thistle. The Dark Blues dominated throughout and took a first half lead from Zach Robinson’s penalty. The Dee could not turn their domination into further goals and paid the price when Cameron Harper scored a lucky equaliser early in the second half. The Dee kept attacking, hitting the crossbar twice and having a legitimate goal disallowed, but could not find a winner.
The Dark Blues had three changes to the starting line-up following last week’s defeat at Morton. Jordan Marshall, Josh Mulligan and Zach Robinson came in for Sam Fisher, Alex Jakubiak and Kwame Thomas.
Dundee had the better of a quiet opening without offering any great threat to the Inverness goal. Caley Thistle were first to have a serious goal attempt after nine minutes. Cameron Harper did well to get his head to a deep cross and Adam Legzdins did an equally job getting down to save.
The Dee began to dominate and crank up pressure on the away goal. Zach Robinson dummied Ryan Sweeney’s header from a corner and it took a good reaction save by Mark Ridgers to stop the Dee taking the lead.
Two minutes later Dundee were ahead. Jordan McGhee nodded the ball on for Robinson, who took it in his stride to beat the Danny Devine, the last defender. Devine’s challenge downed Robinson. This time there was there no penalty trauma for the Dee and ROBINSON tucked the spot kick away neatly, sending Ridgers the wrong way.
The Dark Blues were the better side all over the park and threatened to add to their lead with every attack.
Paul McMullan shot narrowly wide after a good attack down the left by Lyall Cameron and Jordan Marshall. Cameron switched to the right for a lovely combination with Cammy Kerr, whose low pass across goal evaded Robinson and was cleared from a yard out.
Lee Ashcroft did get the ball into the net with a powerful header from a corner only to be penalised for pushing. It looked like the Dee defender was simply the stronger player.
Dundee maintained their dominance into the second hal, but frustratingly the second goal would not come. A good move on the right ended with Kerr crossing to the far post where Josh Mulligan couldn’t make a clean connection with his header.
After all Dundee’s good play and pressure failed to produce a second goal Inverness managed to claim a fortunate equaliser out of nothing. Cameron HARPER tried an optimistic shot from 25 yards out, near the angle of the penalty area. It offered little threat to Adam Legzdins, but took a huge deflection and flew inside near post with the keeper off balance.
Dundee supporters’ frustration was increased by an irresponsible idiot in the away stand who delayed the restart by hurling a pink flare onto the edge of the pitch.
When the Dark Blues were eventually able to kick off they responded well to the disappointing equaliser. A high speed break from a Caley Thistle corner saw Robinson thread a superb pass through for Cameron to net, but the offside flag curtailed the celebrations even though the youngster had timed his run perfectly to run past the covering defenders from an onside position.
The Dark Blues continue to pummel the Inverness defence. Ridgers pulled off a fine double save from Mulligan’s fierce shot and then Robinson’s follow up header.
The referee’s leniency allowed Inverness to break up Dee attacks with a serious of calculated fouls. Dundee couldn’t take advantage of any of the resulting free kicks; poor deliveries hardly helped.
After 78 minutes the Dark Blues made a triple substitution, sending on Luke Hannant, Luke McCowan and Ryan Clampin for Paul McMullan, Josh Mulligan and Jordan Marshall.
The onslaught continued, and Dundee could hardly have come closer to scoring the winner they deserved. McGhee’s header from a corner came back off the crossbar and Ridgers ended the scramble by grabbing the ball. Hannant raced down the left and crossed for Cameron to loop a header against the crossbar. From the rebound the ball broke to Barry Maguire, but Ridgers saved his low shot.
Dundee should have won this match by a handsome margin. If they had taken a two goal lead it would have been very hard for a toothless and ineffectual Caley Thistle team to save the game. While the Dee were only a goal ahead there was always the possibility that Inverness might fluke an equaliser. That happened and Dundee continued to pass up great opportunities and clear chances as they chased a winner.
Today’s game encapsulated problems that have plagued the Dee alll season. They were dominant and creating chances, but not scoring. Time and again points have been dropped in games where the opposition have been clinging on in desperate hope while the Dark Blues pinned them back, battering the defence, but not scoring.
Inverness certainly rode their luck to take a point home today. Normally Dundee should have to accept full responsibility for failing to take their chances, but mistakes by the officials were a crucial factor today. Nevertheless, they have to focus on their repeated failure to run up the scores they deserve when they dominate games. Luck should not have been a factor today. This should have been a comfortable win.
Dundee FC 4-2-3-1
Legzdins
Kerr, Ashcroft, Sweeney (c), Marshall (Clampin)
Maguire, Cameron (Anderson 86)
McMullan (McCowan 78), McGhee, Mulligan (Hannant 78)
Robinson (Thomas 86)
Unused subs: Sharp (gk), Jakubiak, Williamson, Tolaj.
Goal: Robinson (13 pen).
Booked: none.
Inverness Caledonian Thistle 4-4-1-1
Ridgers
Carson, Duffy, Devine (Deas 58), Harper )Boyd 30)
Henderson (Doran 90), Welsh (c), Allardice (Hyde 86), Shaw
Delaney
Samuels (Daniel Mackay 58)
Unused subs: Cameron Mackay (gk), Thompson, Cairns.
Goal: Harper (56).
Booked: Welsh (foul on McGhee), Devine (foul on Robinson), Boyd (foul on McMullan), Henderson (foul on Anderson), Carson (foul on Hannant).
Referee: Chris Graham. Assistants: Chris Rae, Craig Macrae.
Attendance: 4,447 (157 away).
Report: James Christie.
