Dundee went down to a 2-1 defeat against St Mirren in Paisley this afternoon. The Buddies were able to cope better with the awful conditions and took a first half lead through Calvin Ramsay. Eseosa Sule made it 2-0 early in the second half. Bradley Fink gave the Dark Blues hope when he scored his fourth goal in five games. Ethan Hamilton couldn’t have come closer to an equaliser when he shot against the underside of the crossbar in the final seconds, but St Mirren were able to hang on for the win.
Unsurprisingly Steven Pressley sent out a starting eleven that was unchanged from last week, and also named the same nine players for the bench.
Dundee kicked off in a strong wind with the rain pouring down onto a sodden pitch. The game started scrappily and never improved throughout a disappointing first half that was devoid of entertainment in the dreadful conditions.
The Dark Blues were able to keep possession but without doing enough to trouble St Mirren. Dundee offered little before half time. They worked themselves into good positions to cross only a few times and the end result was always poor. St Mirren were little better but they were able to do enough to take the lead with a goal that took advantage of the conditions.
In the 20th minute Buddies keeper Jacob Ramsay had the ball. The Dee press was ineffective and Ramsay hammered an accurate long pass with the wind over the half way line to Eseosa Sule on the right wing. Three St Mirren attackers faced two defenders and Sule played in Calvin RAMSAY to score, slipping the ball past Owen Goodman who got a touch but couldn’t prevent the ball bobbling into the net. It was a poor goal to concede.
The goal didn’t change the game and neither team was able to play football. It was St Mirren, however, who were coping better with the conditions. They could have had a second goal and it would have been just as disappointing for the Dee defence as the first. Ramsay got on the end of a free kick but sent a weak header straight at Goodman. The normally reliable Dee keeper fumbled the ball and was relieved to see Owen Bevan scramble the ball clear.
The second half was little better. Neither side was able to get going and Dundee were unable to derive any advantage from the strong wind. St Mirren were the first to look dangerous and forced a good save from Goodman who did well to stop Declan John’s fierce drive from 16 yards.
St Mirren got it right after 56 minutes. A simple move down the left gave Killian Pilliips the chance to send a dangerous cross to the near post where Eseola SULE nodded home with a disappoint lack of interference from the defence.
Dundee sent Charlie Reilly on in place of Joe Bevan, whose game was hardly suited to running with the ball through puddles. Ryan Finnigan then replaced Callum Jones. The changes helped Dundee and the Dark Blues started to make the passes that threatened to open up the Buddies.
Reilly had a 30 yard shot deflected narrowly wide. From the resulting corner St Mirren failed to clear in the wind and were happy to escape the resulting stramash at the cost of only a further corner. Alan Forrest whipped over a fine cross after Dundee recycled a second ball from the corner. Ash Hay sent a strong header wide from close range, a bad miss for a striker so effective in the air.
The Dark Blues did pull a goal back in the 74th minute. Ryan Astley carried the ball forward into the Buddies’ half and sent a lovely pass through to send Bradley Fink into the penalty area and shoot. Chapman stopped the first shot but was helpless with FINK’s follow up that found the net.
That gave the Dee a boost and from then on an equaliser always looked possible. St Mirren did have one further chance when Goodman scuffed a clearance straight to Jake Young but the substitute mishit his shot well over the bar.
The Dark Blues pushed hard for an equaliser and came agonisingly close to grabbing a point in the last minute of added time. Ethan Hamilton turned into space in a crowded penalty are and smashed a fierce drive against the underside of the crossbar.
The final whistle was followed by a mass row in the St Mirren penalty area that even involved players who had already been withdrawn and also substitutes who had never joined the match. That led to further bookings for Bradley Fink and Brad Halliday and also Alex Gogic for St Mirren, though these three hardly seemed to be the main culprits.
In today’s wretched conditions anything could have happened. It might have been a lottery, but St Mirren did more to load the odds in their favour. They took fewer unnecessary risks at the back, and they gave the Dee defence opportunities to be caught out by the wind and the pitch. It was only in the last quarter of the match that Dundee looked more like their normal selves. If Hamilton’s drive had been half an inch lower and found the net it would have been a matter of the Dark Blues getting out of jail. Over the full 92 minutes they didn’t deserve the point.
St Mirren 3-4-2-1
Chapman
Gogic, Fraser, Fieldson
Ramsay, Phillips, Carr, John
Thomas, Kabia (Mochrie 80)
Sule (Young 68)
Unused subs: Tamosevicius (gk), Jackson, Richardson, Taylor, Donnelly, McEvoy, Ramos.
Goals: Ramsay (20), Sule (56).
Booked: Thomas (dissent), Kabia (blocking free kick), Gogic (end of match incident).
Dundee FC 4-4-2
Owen Goodman
Drey Wright, Ryan Astley, Owen Bevan, Imari Samuels
Joe Bevan (Charlie Reilly 61), Callum Jones (Ryan Finnigan 68), Ethan Hamilton (c), Alan Forrest
Bradley Fink, Ashley Hay
Unused substitutes: Kieran OโHara (gk), Brad Halliday, Idris Odutayo, Matai Akinmboni, Zan Besir, Joe Wright, Alfie Harrison.
Goal: Bradley Fink (74).
Booked: Harrison (foul on Carr), Halliday (end of match incident), Fink (end of match incident).
Attendance: 6,532.
Referee: Steven McLean. Assistants: Calum Spence, Douglas Ross. VAR: Greg Aitken. Assistant VAR: Duncan Williams. 4th Official: Sean Murdoch.
Report: James Christie.
