Dundee blew Motherwell away with three quickfire goals in the second half to earn an emphatic 4-1 win at the Scot Foam Stadium tonight. Seun Adewumi put the Dee ahead with a superb early goal only for Well’s Apostolos Stamatelopoulos to grab a quick equaliser. Midway through the second half the Dark Blues settled the game in a blistering seven minute spell. Scott Tiffoney finished off a textbook break out of defence and Lyall Cameron scored twice from Simon Murray assists. There was no way back for Well after that. Dundee finished as comfortable winners and climbed to fifth place in the Premiership.
There were two changes to the Dee’s starting eleven. Scott Tiffoney and Seun Adewumi came in for Fin Robertson and Seb Palmer-Houlden, who were both on the bench.
There was little to excite the supporters in the opening 10 minutes as both teams felt their way into the game. Motherwell settled first and Lennon Miller had two shots from distance that flew wide with Jon McCracken happy to watch them without diving.
The Dark Blues took the lead with a goal of the highest quality in their first serious attack after 14 minutes. Scott Tiffoney did well to nip past his marker and race down the left. He passed to Seun ADEWUMI who cut inside and whipped a glorious shot round keeper Aston Oxborough and inside the far post.
Motherwell took only five minutes to equalise and their goal had its own touch of class. Jair Tavares’s pass to open up the Dundee defence was inch perfect. Mo Sylla put in a challenge on Harry Paton but the ball broke to Apostolos STAMATELOPOULOS. McCracken made a great save but was helpless when the Well striker followed up to score.
Dundee were straight back on the attack and another run by Adewumi triggered a scramble in the Well goalmouth before the ball eventually ricocheted wide for a goalkick.
Motherwell had a good spell in the middle of the half before Dundee started to take control in midfield, moving the ball into good positions and creating problems for Well in the penalty area without making any clear chances.
Meanwhile the visitors were offering little in attack until they created the last chance of the half with a smart move through the middle. Stamatelopoulos had room to shoot on the edge of the penalty area, but McCracken pulled off a good save.
The opening of the second half gave no hint of what was to come. Little happened in the opening quarter of an hour. Tony Watt worked his way round the outside of Ryan Astley before Harry Paton mishit a poor shot wide. That was the nearest to goalmouth action until the game exploded into life in a manner that thrilled the home support.
As the hour mark arrived Motherwell won a corner, but it was the Dark Blues who scored from it with a classic breakaway. McCracken caught the corner and threw it out to Antonio Portales who was sprinting out of defence. The Mexican defender raced forward with Dark Blues flooding into the Motherwell half at pace. Portales had several options but passed left for TIFFONEY to cut inside the last defender and score with a low shot inside the far post from 15 yards.
Three minutes later the Dee were 3-1 up. Josh Mulligan burst forward and passed infield to Simon Murray who laid the ball off for Lyall CAMERON and the young midfielder scored with a 20 yard shot that took a helpful deflection to give Oxborough no chance of saving.
Four more minutes and the Dark Blues killed the game with goal number four. Murray chased a long ball heading towards the corner flag. He muscled Kofi Balmer off the ball and set up CAMERON to score with a low shot across Oxborough.
The final outcome was never in doubt after that. Motherwell didn’t give up and kept plugging away in the hope of a consolation. Balmer headed over at a corner and McCracken made an excellent save from Steve Seddon’s ferocious 22 yard effort.
Dundee were largely happy to keep Well at bay and manage the game to a conclusion. Billy Koumetio had to go off after taking a head knock and Sean Kelly came on for his debut, but in midfield rather than his more familiar central defence. Jordan McGhee dropped back into defence.
Julien Vetro arrived as a late substitute and impressed with some lively attacking on the right. His combination with Mo Sylla almost set up a fifth goal, but the ball got stuck between the feet of Seb Palmer-Houlden, another substitute.
A 4-1 victory over a Premiership team sitting in fifth place is an outstanding result. Dundee have played better in a few games this season between the penalty areas. Tonight, however, the Dark Blues defended well and were lethal in attack.
Crucially this was an excellent team performance with a good balance between defence, midfield and attack. Seun Adewumi took the sponsor’s man of the match award, and Lyall Cameron certainly took the eye with his goals and general creativity. But their contributions were effective only because the whole team worked hard, and worked well together.
The players thoroughly deserved the ovation they received at the end. The supporters have been treated to three wins, with eleven goals, in the last three home games. That’s definitely crowd-pleasing fare!
Dundee FC 3-5-2
McCracken
Astley, Portales, Koumetio (Kelly 84)
Mulligan, Cameron, McGhee, Sylla, Tiffoney (Fin Robertson 69)
Murray (c) (Palmer-Houlden 69), Adewumi (Vetro 89)
Unused substitutes: Sharp (gk), Carson (gk), Ingram, Main, Braybrooke.
Goals: Adewumi (14), Tiffoney (60), Cameron (63, 67).
Booked: Koumetio (foul on Balmer), McGhee (foul on Maswanhise).
Motherwell 3-4-3
Oxborough
Casey, Gordon, Balmer
Wilson, Paton (Halliday 68), Miller, Seddon
Tavares (Kaleta 68), (Ebiye 68), Watt (Maswanhise 75)
Unused subs: Hegyi (gk), Zdravkovski, Nicholson, Blaney, Koutroumbis.
Goal: Stamatelopoulos (19).
Booked: Lennon (foul on Mulligan), Seddon (dissent), Kettlewell (manager, dissent).
Referee: John Beaton. Assistants: Jonathan Bell, Elliott Husband Powton. VAR: Gavin Duncan. Assistant VAR: David McGeachie.
Attendance: 5,381.
Report: James Christie.
