Dundee went down to a 3-0 home defeat against Ross County this afternoon. Noah Chilvers gave the Staggies a first half lead. Josh Nisbet and a Jordan White penalty completed the scoring in the second half. The Dark Blues were off the pace throughout and made far too many mistakes. They started slowly and never put their game together against well organised opponents.
Simon Murray and Seun Adewumi returned to the starting eleven, taking the place of Seb Palmer-Houlden and Fin Robertson, who were on the bench.
County kicked off and spent almost all of the opening five minutes in the Dee half without threatening the home goal. For a few minutes the Dark Blues offered the fans hope with some promising attacks. The best moment of the half came when Billy Koumetio advanced into space in midfield and played an accurate pass through the defence for Seun Adewumi to race to the byline. He sent a low cross into the goalmouth but County cleared.
That was after 15 minutes and frustratingly that was the end of the Dee’s slight improvement. From then on the Dark Blues lacked a spark. Too many passes were safe, giving the Staggies no problems, or inaccurate and simply cost posession.
Noah Chilvers tried an optimistic dipping shot from 45 yards with Trevor Carson off his line. The Dee keeper got back and the shot sailed a foot over the bar.
County twice worked their way into good wide positions and sent dangerous crosses into the goalmouth with Dundee clearing each time, though not in a manner to inspire confidence.
The Staggies took the lead in the 23rd minute. CHILVERS worked his way in from the right wing, played a 1-2 with Jack Grieves and scored with a low shot inside Carson’s left hand post from 18 yards.
County then sat back and invited Dundee to try and break through their defence. The Dark Blues’ efforts were unconvincing. They couldn’t find the right passes in the final third and couldn’t find space amongst County’s two deep lines of defence. The first half drifted to a disappointing conclusion.
Improvement was clearly needed. It didn’t come. Dundee made two half time substitutions. Fin Robertson and Sean Kelly came on for Antonio Portales and Jordan McGhee. The Dark Blues continued to stutter, unable to get the wide players into positions where they could hurt County or pull defenders out of position.
County did try to attack more in the second half and never looked like being caught on the break when they did so. In possession Dundee were too ponderous or too careless. The Staggies always kept their shape and helped themselves when the Dark Blue made mistakes, which were far too frequent.
After 67 minutes Dundee made a triple substitution. Ethan Ingram, Seb Palmer-Houlden and Curtis Main replaced Scott Tiffoney, Sean Adewumi and Simon Murray. Ingram went to right wing back with Josh Mulligan moving to centre midfield.
Before the changes had a chance to take effect the Dark Blues conceded an awful second goal which killed any chance of saving the game. Dundee tried to break out of defence but Mo Sylla was disposessed. Two County players faced a single Dee defender and Chilvers set up substitute Josh NISBET to score past the helpless Carson.
Seven minutes later it was three. As Mulligan tried to clear a corner in the Dee penalty area Nisbet nipped in front of him and was fouled. Jordan WHITE scored from the penalty spot.
Seb Palmer-Houlden brought an excellent save from keeper Jordan Amissah with a low 18 yard shot after Curtis Main had laid the ball off. For all Dundee’s attacking that was the only time they managed to force the Staggies’ keeper to make a save that was anything more than simple. Apart from that the Dark Blues couldn’t create worthwhile chances when they did manage to get into good positions.
The County defence always kept their shape and always had men in the right place to frustrate Dundee. The visitors were more organised and made far fewer mistakes than Dundee. That was enough to give them a comfortable win over a Dundee team who were out of touch, careless, and well short of the required standard all over the park.
Dundee FC 3-4-3
Carson (c)
Astley, Portales (Kelly at half time), Koumetio
Mulligan, Cameron, Sylla, McGhee (Fin Robertson at half time)
Tiffoney (Ingram 67), Murray (Main 67), Adewumi (Palmer-Houlden 67)
Unused substitutes: McCracken (gk), Sharp (gk), Braybrooke, Vetro.
Ross County 3-5-2
Amissah
Wright, Lopata, Leak
Efete, Grieves (White 59), Randall, Denholm (Nisbet 34), Randall, Harmon
Chivers (Telfer 78), Hale (Brophy 78)
Unused subs: Hamilton (gk), Brown, Allardice, Loturi, Reid.
Goals: Chilvers (23), Nisbet (70), White pen (78).
Booked: Lopata (foul on Adewumi), Grieves (foul on Sylla).
Referee: Don Robertson. Assistants: David Roome, Ross Macleod. VAR: Andrew Dallas. Assistant VAR: Graham McNeillie.
Attendance: 5,207.
Report: James Christie.
