Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
‘Bain kept us in it’ says Dee manager
DUNDEE manager Paul Hartley heaped praise on No 1 Scott Bain after his saves earned a point against Ross County.
The former Alloa keeper was in fine form with some excellent stops which his boss was thankful for after striker Marcus Haber missed a glorious chance at the other end.
Hartley said: “I felt we did OK in the first half.
“We had some good situations and movement.
“Haber should probably have scored but Scott Bain kept us in it at the other end with a magnificent save.”
Haber’s chance came in the 75th minute after his first touch from a Kevin Gomis pass saw him through on the Ross County keeper.
The Dark Blues boss thinks he should have done better but refused to be too harsh on the Canadian internationalist.
“You would expect Haber to hit the target, he takes a great touch and you’re just waiting for it to hit the back of the net.
“It didn’t but that happens so we’re not going to be too critical of Marcus.”
It was Dundee’s third clean sheet in six games and the manager was more than pleased in keeping County at bay.
He believes his team defended well for the majority of the game, adding: “The pleasing thing for me is getting a clean sheet and another point.
“We defended OK but there were some balls into the box we could have done better with.”
The game itself wasn’t one for the purists with mistakes and misplaced passes aplenty. Paul thinks all matches could be like this between now and the summer given the tight nature of the league.
“It’s not going to be classic games from now until the end of the season even though this game was pretty open.
“I think it was a little end-to-end and a bit frantic.
“We can definitely pass the ball a lot better.”
The reason behind this lies in the closeness of the table.
“Every point is vital for everyone from fifth position down to 12th place,” said Hartley.
The festive fixture list could have been kinder to Dundee. Next up they travel to Celtic and Partick before home games against Hearts and St Johnstone so this point could end up being crucial come the end of the season.