Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year.
It’s been a few weeks since my last TEB article due to work and over celebrating during the festive season. Now that everything has returned to the normal grind of the everyday life, let’s talk about Dundee.
When I last spoke, we were about to witness Dundee play in three massive games for the club before the reintroduction of the winter break into Scottish Football. Over the prior few weeks, the club had blown great chances to take points from a few other struggling clubs that would have given the team some much needed breathing space. Now we were faced with the daunting task of two home matches against teams who will more than likely make the top six this season along with an extremely tough game in Glasgow to face Partick Thistle.
Hearts were the first team on the list that we would face and it couldn’t have got off to a much worse start. We conceded a penalty in the first few minutes then found ourselves two down at the start of the second half, being totally dominated all over the park. What occurred next was the unlikeliest of comebacks for The Dee.
From two-nil down, we suddenly saw Dundee level with Hearts as the team went from night to day in their performance. A lengthy break due to an injury saw NINE minutes added on as the Dark Blues pushed forward for the winner. Many sensed it would happen and it eventually did in the 93rd minute thanks to an own goal from a Hearts defender. Many will argue that it should be credited to Dundee striker Marcus Haber but in my eyes, it was an own goal.
It’s not often you witness Dundee launching a comeback like they did on that cold Friday night but the team rallied round and they showed great determination and fight to secure the win. A special mention to the guy that sits behind me in the Bobby Cox stand who decided to stick a tenner on us to win 3-2 when we were 2-0 down!
With that win still fresh in everyone’s mind, many thought that we could then go to Firhill Stadium and come away with a result against struggling Partick Thistle. It was not to be and The Dee were beaten disappointingly by two goals to nil. There was not be another Heart’s style comeback on the cards.
I’ve seen some brief highlights of the match but in my opinion it was never a free kick in the lead up to their goal and their second was clearly offside. I would say that mind you!
This brings us to our last match before the break on Hogmanay against our neighbours from Perth, St Johnstone. The Saints are well known for their dogged style of play and ability to play ugly and win and have a previous Scottish Cup triumph and numerous high league position finishes due to this style. I never had much hope for getting a result in this tie. How wrong was I!?
What we saw was an emphatic 3-0 victory. Their fans turned out in numbers, thinking this would be an easy victory. They brought flares, a drum and even a bloody strobe light with them. Their ‘party’ atmosphere would continue even after going three goals behind but that’s what happens when you feed a bunch of twelve year olds with sugar sweets and pop before a game!
Both teams had chances, St Johnstone hit the bar and had a few near misses, but Dundee proved to be more deadly upfront and could have had a few more by the end of the ninety minutes.
We had to change our formation a bit due to injuries and sickness but it worked a treat. Having Craig Wighton and Fassial El Bakthoui playing beside Marcus Haber worked wonders. Wighton did pull up early on holding his hamstring and it seemed to affect him for the rest of the game but he still put in a shift and contributed to the three points. Seeing El Baktoui net only his second goal of the season (in near identical fashion to his first back in August) was also very pleasing as he has struggled somewhat to cope with the step up to the top league.
Marcus Haber has to get a special mention for setting up two of the goals and also being involved in the third. For the second home game in a row, when it looked like he scored, it will unfortunately go down as an own goal. He has been an excellent signing for us.
As much as the defeat away to Partick was a sore one to take, our two wins at home against top six opposition was a breath of fresh air as we have struggled against these teams since we were promoted in 2014. It was also our fourth win in five matches at home since we were beaten by Partick at the end of October when we were on that horrendous losing streak. Throw in a draw against Ross County and we have are five games unbeaten at home since that game. Our away form could be much better but right now, the upturn in fortunes of our home results will do for me.
It was a great way to end the year and it also gave us a six point cushion over Inverness at the bottom and five points over Hamilton who sit in the play off place. If it had panned out how I thought it could have done, we would have been looking at a totally different situation but the team have dug deep to end the year on a happy note.
There will be players moving on in this transfer window, being replaced by a few more, there’s no doubting that. Hopefully with the team grabbing a few unlikely wins before the break it won’t be too much of a panicky transfer window but we do have room for improvement.
In the meantime, we (everyone in Scotland) can enjoy this winter break more than most would have expected now from the two victories from three matches.
MON THE DEE!
