Evening Telegraph (First Edition)
Hearts comeback can ignite season
AT half-time on Friday night, I bet most Dundee fans were already pessimistic about their team’s chances in tonight’s game at Firhill.
But what a difference 45 minutes can make.
If the Dark Blues aren’t going to Maryhill tonight with their confidence at an all-season high, there’s something wrong with them.
That comeback in the 3-2 win over Hearts is the type of game that can ignite a whole season.
It’s been pretty hard going in the first half of the campaign but tonight you’ve got to fancy Dundee will be flying going into the game.
And, even if things go a bit pearshaped, which they can do at any level of football, they should now have that unshakeable belief that, even if they’re two goals down, they are not beaten.
They’ve shown it once, they can do it again. And that don’t-know-whenthey’re-beaten attitude can carry teams a long, long way. It’s a big game. They’re all big games at this stage. And Partick will be confident themselves after a fine 3-1 win at Ross County, so it promises to be a fascinating watch.
Thistle are a nice team and can keep the ball really well but the Dark Blues will fancy their new-found defensive stability with the back three can negate that.
The one thing Dundee will have to do is keep Chris Erskine quiet.
I was disappointed to see ‘Squiddy’, as he’s known, leave Dundee United in the summer because I think he’s a very under-rated player.
He had his moments at Tannadice but Firhill seems to be his home and those gangly legs can cause defences all sorts of problems.
His quick feet in and around the box can open up teams and the Dark Blues will need to try and get ‘Squiddy’ tangled up in their defensive net.
Dundee have threats of their own, though, and after scoring three goals in a game for the first time since the opening day, they’ll reckon they can hurt the Jags.
Marcus Haber has two in two — although the Hearts one was an own goal for me — and if they can get sharpshooter Darren O’Dea in the box as much as possible, they’ve a chance. What a finish his goal against the Jambos was.
It’s all about belief for Dundee between now and the end of the season and surely they are chock-full of belief after that amazing comeback.