Anderson glad to be caught off guard by goal
DUNDEE’S Max Anderson has gone through all of the emotions in the past four days.
First, out due to sickness for the Ross County match, he had to watch his side suffer a 5-0 rout. Then on Saturday, he became a returning hero as he scored the winner in the 1-0 victory over St Mirren.
Such was the experience, Anderson did not even know how to celebrate after scoring his first Premiership goal and ended up applauding his teammates.
“It was quite an experience,” said the beaming Anderson. “Obviously from the start of the season you want to get your first goal in the Premiership.
“Once we got it, I didn’t even know how to celebrate. I was thinking ‘do a knee slide’, then turned round and I think I ended up basically clapping everyone else. I was just excited to get the goal.”
Even if his celebration was not that of a frequent goalscorer, for the neutral it would be a surprise to hear it was the first of the campaign as Anderson coolly stroked the ball into the bottom corner from the edge of the box.
But he admitted he was not sure he could pull off the same finish again after seeing numerous attempts fly into the stands and over the bar in training.
“I don’t think I could do that again,” he said. “I’ve laced it a couple of times in training and it went sky high so I thought let’s just try the pass method and hopefully it rolls in.
“I think Paul McMullan took a touch and then it’s bounced up and I was running on to it perfect, then just side footed it. I’ve seen them go in the stands and over the stadium but thankfully it just stayed low and went in.”
It was a vital goal and gave Dundee something to hold on to as they tried to stay resolute throughout wave after wave of St Mirren attacks.
But for Anderson there was always going to be a major response from his team-mates after the disappointment in midweek.
“Obviously I wasn’t there, I was sick,” said Anderson. “We were poor through midweek but with the players we have got and the attitude we knew we were going to bounce back and the reaction was second to none.
“I would say it was important to get something out of the game, but it was always going to happen when the reaction from the boys was brilliant.
“I watched it, it was a bit frustrating obviously but the win [at St Mirren] shows it was a one-off.”
All in all it was a much better time for Anderson against the Buddies this time round after being sent off on the opening day of the season for chopping down Eamonn Brophy.
Recalling the match, he joked: “I thought I’d just try and keep my feet low to the ground and not volley anyone this time.”
Meanwhile, St Mirren captain Joe Shaughnessy branded the home loss a “blip” after his side struggled to create any clear cut chances despite dominating for large spells.
He said: “Very disappointing, I don’t think we played as well as we did in the last couple of games.
“I think they played pretty well and defended well.
“We maybe played into their hands, the two boys look like big towers at the back. They probably deserved it, we didn’t look like we were going to score at all.
“For whatever reason we just couldn’t create the chances, I don’t know if we rushed it a little bit. It was one of those days where we couldn’t get the result.”