Dee’s Xmas miracle can be built on

WE all love a Christmas miracle and, in football terms,Dundee’sremarkable comeback victory over Hearts was as close as you’ll get to one.

The visitors went two-up just three minutes into the second half under the Friday night lights at Dens Park but, when it came to taking anything from this game, for the Dark Blues it wasn’t so much as case of “oh no they won’t” as there seemed no way they could.

Because the truth was, after 48 minutes of quite abysmal play, Paul Hartley’s men were extremely lucky to be just a couple of goals adrift of the opposition.

Afterwards, the manager himself admitted his team could have been dead and buried in a first half that saw them almost completely dominated.

A goal down in just three minutes to a Jamie Walker penalty, that they were not two or three more behind by the interval had everything to do with missed Jambo chances and not with any resolute attempt by the home side to get back in the game.

But since battling off the bottom of the Premiership in October, if there’s one thing these Dundee players haven’t lacked it’s character.

They showed it in spades as they clawed their way back from going 2-0 down to Callum Paterson’s header.

Five minutes or so after that goal, skipper Darren O’Dea pulled one back when he blasted home from 10 yards.

For all the travails that went before, the way the home players grabbed the ball and raced back to the halfway line for the restart told that none of them thought the game was over.

They’d grabbed the momentum and, while Hearts still managed to get forward at regular intervals for the rest of proceedings, there was no question Dundee were i n the ascendency.

The introduction of Paul McGowan for Mark O’Hara just before that goal was a major factor in that.

It was fitting the Dee midfielder produced the strike that levelled the scores on 71 minutes.