Falling At The Last Hurdle

After the euphoria of demolishing Ross County and holding Champions Celtic to a goalless draw, Dundee came thumping back down to earth with a defeat at Hamilton that not only gave them their first home victory in six months but also extinguish our hopes of a second consecutive top six finish.

It was a hard defeat to take but it seemed that despite our aims of finishing as high as possible with the league so tight, it was Hamilton that started the game with more passion in their play. They deservedly took the lead and added another before half time. Even though Dundee managed to get a goal back, the damage was done and we would have to make do with a bottom half finish.

I, along with mostly all the Dundee fans were gutted as we had just blown the last of our big targets this season with none of them being met. Dumped out the cups by Dunfermline and Rangers and then pipped at the post on the last day of the split was not on the to-do list this season.

Understandably, the fans showed their reaction by posting about it over social media. Some people said they were disgusted at the team, the players were a disgrace, it was been an embarrassing season for us and that we are going backwards as a team. All of that I disagree with. Disgusted and thought the players were a disgrace? Nope. Extremely disappointed? Definitely.

The team were playing their third game in seven days and even though we took care of County by a massive score line, they gave us the physical battle you would expect from them. Then we had another gruelling game against Celtic just a few days after. Fatigue was always going to creep up on some of the players and a few of them were even playing with injuries. At the end of the day, I think we all expected to see the team deliver on Saturday instead of the below par performance they gave but we should maybe take a moment to stand back and look at the run in we had towards this crucial game.

When you look at the league table we are only THREE points from fourth place! The split has scuppered any chance of us reaching them lofty heights that we were starting to cast an eye on which is frustrating as I think if there was not a split, we would be there or not far off.

So there you have it. This season we have to resign ourselves to playing in the bottom six but does this mean we are a worse off team from last year or going backwards?

I would say not at all. We were punching well above our weight last season when we made the top six and caught out a few teams with some of the players we had, mainly Greg Stewart. This has no doubt led to some fans maybe feeling that anything other than a finish like that would be a disaster.

Ultimately, the amount of draws and not being able to beat ten men when we have been in the lead has come back to haunt us. My personal opinion of what has also had a huge effect on the team is the ever changing defence and Kevin Thomson’s starting spot being protected whenever he returned from injury.

The defence chopping and changing cannot be helped I guess as it has been through injury but the Kevin Thomson scenario always got to me as it clearly had an effect on players who were not preforming, possibly due to the fact that no matter how well they would do, they would lose their spot in the team to Thomson. There is no doubting the impact Thomson would have and the quality he would bring to the team but I have always been the firm believer that you just cannot expect to walk straight back into any team without first fighting to win back your spot. The obvious exceptions of course being Lionel Messi and Greg Stewart.

One thing we have managed to do regardless of what section we finished in after the split is consolidate ourselves in the Premiership. Everyone would love to finish as high as possible and go on cup runs but the absolute minimum requirement we should have set out to do was to make sure we were not in any play off or relegation battle.

Mathematically, the Dee can still be dragged into a play off scrap but I firmly believe that it will not happen to us. Some may say that what I have just said is lack of ambition but until we have been in this league for a few more years and established this team as a top five or even top four then that is what my target would be each year. You could possibly put this down from the many years of watching Dundee slum it in the lower leagues and not wanting to go back to the dross we used to have to watch!

I do truly believe that this team and club are on the right track. Paul Hartley has built a good team but there is some obvious weaknesses in it that I am sure he has already looked at to rectify for 2016/2017. We have a good nucleus for developing a good team that could challenge for cups etc.

One thing that did make up for finishing in the bottom six was the fixtures being announced on Tuesday morning. Potentially we have the chance to relegate our neighbours Dundee United at Dens Park in the next derby. Realistically, there are too many what ifs for this scenario to happen but if (and that is a big IF) it was to arise, would be a fantastic opportunity to officially reclaim our place as this city’s top team and silence a massive section of their support who have kicked us at every opportunity when we were down.

Even if it does not, we will still be the top team in Dundee come the end of the season but it would be so much sweeter if it was us putting the final nail in their coffin.

MON THE DEE!