The best way to describe that game against Inverness Caledonian Thistle is simple, anti-football.
From the first minute to the last, Caley tried to bully the Dee about with acts of thuggery that basically went unpunished throughout the game. How they survived the whole nintey minutes with eleven men still has me dumbfounded.
In the first five minutes, Greg Stewart got past his marker only to be blatantly pulled down in front of the referee. Not once but twice! He was then on the end of a tackle from behind which the player failed to connect with the ball and when he was getting up, the Inverness player kicked out at him, got him in a headlock and then basically gave him a wrestling move called a ‘DDT’. All of which was done in full view of the officials. The result? A yellow card for both!
This starts me off on referees.
I have already mention the assaults on Stewart that he let go but the performance from Dallas throughout the whole game was a shambles. Constant time wasting by their goalkeeper was only met with a yellow card a few minutes before the break when as the ball boy was passing the ball back after it had gone out of play. He decided to punch it back to the young lad! Then you had him obstructing the ball in the second half outside the box when he made a mess of a clearance and decided the best form of defence was to just lay over the ball.
There was also a great shout for a penalty which was never given but on the performance the referee was having, it came of no surprise.
Make no doubt about it, we deserved all three points from this game. We spurned so many chances, most notable from Hemmings and two from Stewart but it was with a huge relief that we finally made the breakthrough late on to claim a point. This was the minimum of what we truly deserved from this game.
On any other day we would have won this by a good few goals or 5-1 which was the scoreline Paul Hartley said we could have won by.
So that was that, another game without a win against Inverness but it was another good performance from the Dee who had an off day when it came to putting the ball into the net but still managed to get another point on the board and keep our place in the top six.
A special mention goes to Holmesdale Cravatics who were up in Dundee this weekend to take in the game and also have a good few beers. It seems that they all had a good time and were even allowed to fly their flag from the main stand at Dens Park which many a person around me noticed and pointed out to others.
It is not often you have fans of Crystal Palace visiting your stadium but it was also announced at half time that some Charlton Athletic fans had made the trip and were also sampling the hospitality. I hope they were kept apart!
On Wednesday night we make the first of two trips in four days to Glasgow as we visit Parkhead to take on the Champions Celtic, the result of which will be known by the time this article goes live. The last two games at their ground have seen us get absolutely thumped by the Bhoys so many a fan will be hoping for a much improved performance.
There is always a great amount of optimism among the fans that we can visit and come away with a result but if we were able to do that now, it would be a great boost for our next trip to Glasgow at the weekend in the Scottish Cup.
The Scottish Cup Quarter Final against Rangers is the biggest game of the season for Dundee so far and no doubt for the opponents too so there will surely be a big crowd for this one which will produce a big atmosphere. Dundee have sold out their allocation of just over 2,000 for this and with everyone talking about it, they will be in full voice. We could have sold many more tickets for this I suspect but it is guaranteed that the small section we have been given will spur the team on.
This game is very much winnable for us. Rangers have struggled against Premiership sides when they have met them in the cup and I am hoping for a repeat. Our strike force will cause any defence problems and with the type of form they are on at the moment they will surely cause the Rangers defence a host of them.
It would be amazing to get the win here and make it to the semi final stage which would bring a wee trip and day out to Hampden but we can only go out there and hope the team play like they can to assure this.
MON THE DEE!
