Dundee were left teetering on the brink of relegation to the Championship following a 2-0 defeat against St Mirren in Paisley. The Dark Blues gifted the Buddies’ Alex Grieve an early goal and could not pull themselves back into the game. A spirited start to the second half offered Dee fans some hope, but these were quickly crushed by Curtis Main’s fine finish for the crucial second goal. St Mirren had no difficulty in holding on to their lead as the Dark Blues sank to a defeat that leaves them six points adrift of St Johnstone with two games left to play.
The Dark Blues started on the attack and spent the first few minutes in St Mirren’s half without giving the Buddies’ defence any real problems. St Mirren’s first attack gave them an absurd goal from a dreadful error by Charlie Adam. The Dee captain tidied up the attack on the wide left of the penalty area. Reluctant to lash the ball aimlessly clear he tried to pass across the face of goal. It was a poor decision that was badly executed, and he set up Alex GRIEVE for a simple close range finish past the unfortunate Harry Sharp.
Dundee’s promising opening performance disintegrated with that goal. St Mirren were able to take charge and continually threatened to add to their lead. Without looking particularly impressive they were too good for a lacklusture Dee team.
The Dark Blues couldn’t manage a shot on target in the first half. The nearest thing followed a superb long pass from Adam out to Jordan Marshall on the left. Jak Alnwick fumbled the cross under pressure from Zak Rudden but quickly recovered. In the remaining 30 minutes until half time there was nothing from the Dee in the final third.
Harry Sharp pulled off a wonderful save to touch Curtis Main’s header around the post. The Saints’ striker could hardly have placed his header any better but the young keeper’s response was outstanding.
Greg Kiltie hit a low shot from 20 yards narrowly past the post. Alex Grieve had an unconvincing penalty claim when he went down as he tried to turn inside Cammy Kerr and Conor McCarthy headed a decent chance well over the bar from a free kick.
There was little to impress neutrals in a poor 45 minutes, but St Mirren clearly deserved their one goal lead at half time.
After a frustratingly passive first half the Dark Blues started the second half with far more purpose and energy. The Buddies were pushed back, forced to defend in their penalty area against a stream of corners and free kicks.
Four minutes after the restart came the incident on which the game turned. St Mirren failed to clear a corner, creating a goalmouth scramble. Ryan Sweeney stabbed a shot goalwards. Jordan McGhee tried and failed to get the close-in touch that would have scored and the ball struck the inside of the post then ran along the goalline into the gloves of Alnwick.
Dundee were the better side for the opening 10 minutes of the second half but they were utterly flattened by a goal out of nothing by St Mirren. Richard Tait hit a long diagonal pass into the Dee penalty area. MAIN took the ball down and smashed a rishing shot inside Sharp’s right hand post – a superb finish by the Buddies’ striker.
As in the first half the goal destroyed whatever fragile confidence Dundee might have had. There was no response, no fightback. The Dark Blues looked a beaten team from then on. It would be unfair on both teams to say that St Mirren coasted to the final whistle. Dundee kept working, but they were able to do little more than shuffle the ball around in midfield unable to get past St Mirren’s well disciplined lines and urgent pressing. The Buddies always kept their shape and looked far more like to add a third goal than let the Dee back into the match.
Josh Mulligan and Paul McMullan were sent on to replace Luke McCowan and Charlie Adam with half an hour to go. Shaun Byrne and Max Anderson then came on for Paul McGowan and Zak Rudden. None of the changes could give a lift to a flat and dispirited Dundee team. A desperately poor and disappointing game for the Dee died long before the final whistle.
There have been some signs of improvement in recent weeks but today the Dark Blues went down tamely to defeat. Livingston’s late equaliser against St Johnstone saved Dundee from being relegated today. There will have to be a significant improvement on Tuesday against Hibs if the Dee are to get the win that will stave off relegation for 24 hours at least.
St Mirren 3-4-1-2
Alnwick
Fraser, Shaughnessy (c), McCarthy
Tait, Gogic, Erhahon (Power 76), Tanser
Kiltie (Flynn 81)
Main (Brophy 90+2), Grieve (Henderson 90+2)
Unused subs: Lyness (gk), Gilmartin.
Goals: Grieve (4), Main (55).
Booked: Tait (foul on Marshall), Kiltie (foul on Kerr), Gogic (foul on Kerr).
Dundee FC 4-2-3-1
Sharp
Kerr, Sweeney, McGhee, Marshall
McGowan (Byrne 65), Adam (c) (Mulligan 60)
McCowan (McMullan 60, McGinn, Rudden (Anderson 73)
Mullen
Unused subs: Welsh (gk), Fontaine, Chapman, Robertson, Daley-Campbell.
Booked: Sweeney (foul on Grieve).
Attendance: 5,564.
Referee: David Dickinson. Assistants: David Roome, Craig Ferguson. Fourth Official: Chris Graham.
Report: James Christie.
