Toothless Dee lose

PLAYERRATINGS McGinn strikes to give Hibees victory at Dens

TOOTHLESS Dundee started 2018 in the Premiership with a frustrating 1-0 home defeat to high-flying Hibs.

A sole John McGinn strike was enough for the Edinburgh side to head south with all three points.

Despite the tight scoreline and the scrappiness of the winning goal, it wasn’t a game that lacked for chances.

Dundee’s disappointment comes in not being able to put one of their opportunities away.

Looking back on the chances at both ends, it was one of those games where you wouldn’t have been surprised to see it end up 1-1 or 3-0 to Hibs.

What it did end is with no points going to the Dark Blues.

The good news, though, the lethargy and lacklustre showing last Saturday against Inverness wasn’t evident this time around.

It was a bit more like their old selves but, once again, like the start of the season, they didn’t take their chances and the opposition did.

That leaves them in 10th spot with just 11 games to go before the split, time is going to start running out before long to get themselves away from the bottom two spots.

Just like most of the campaign, though, Neil McCann’s men weren’t off the pace against their opposition but still fell short of getting anything.

What they desperately need is a proper goalscorer, though.

So difficult to find but, if the Dark Blues end up selling Jack Hendry and getting some dosh in, recruiting a front man with the money has to be top of the shopping list.

With both targetmen Sofien Moussa and Marcus Haber missing, Dundee didn’t have a man up top to play the ball in to and get runners around.

A-Jay Leitch-Smith led the line with Faissal El Bakhtaoui getting up to help him. Early on, there was just no way up to them.

Hibs started on the front foot and made Dundee defend deeply. What they also did was push right up on the home backline to prevent them playing out easily.

And with no big man to hit when playing out wasn’t on, Hibs were able to get the ball back and enjoyed some real pressure.

Slowly, though, Dundee started to get through the press and had the first real effort of note through El Bakhtaoui’s spin and shot which was saved by Ofir Marciano.

Hibs were always a threat, however, and it took some top defending from Jesse Curran to stop Simon Murray at the back post with the ball ending up hitting the upright on 21 minutes.

Despite Dundee having the better of the openings, the visitors probably just about edged the first half.

And they made that edge count shortly after the restart as Murray’s attempt to shoot fell back to McGinn and he planted the ball into the bottom corner.

Straight after that, McGowan found himself through but shot wide from an angle before Brandon Barker sped off down the left but couldn’t beat Parish.

Chances were flowing at both ends and Mark O’Hara thought he’d finally got the equaliser only for Marciano to somehow claw his header out with the ball seemingly destined for the corner.

Barker again and Murray would go on to miss chances but the referee’s failure to send off McGinn for a second booking was the talking point of the second half with Dundee feeling aggrieved.

They had a right to but in the end came away with nothing, making Saturday’s trip to Hamilton absolutely massive.