Dark Blues look for big response

Dundee’s Jack Hamilton admits having another tough away game at Pittodrie tomorrow night is the perfect way to try to put right what went wrong at Kilmarnock on Saturday, writes Neil Robertson.

The Dark Blues’ four-game unbeaten run came to an end at Rugby Park with the home side winning 3-1 thanks to a scrappy counter from Kirk Broadfoot, a Genseric Kusunga own goal and then a third through former Dens favourite Greg Stewart.

Kenny Miller scored for Dundee right at the end but it was no more than a consolation goal with the home side well-deserved winners on the day.

Now, though, Hamilton is looking for a big response against Aberdeen tomorrow.

The 24-year-old keeper said: “It’s good as players get right back into it.

“We will have a look and see what we can learn from this game and then put it to bed. We have to be ready to go again.

“I think my record at Pittodrie is not too bad so hopefully it can stay that way.

“Every game is important now. We have games in quick succession and they are ones we are looking to get points from.”

Dundee boss Jim Mcintyre was forced to make a late change to his subs’ bench at Rugby Park after Roarie Deacon suffered a thigh injury in the warm-up, while Paul Mcgowan played despite being ill all Friday night.

However, the manager admitted it was his team’s failure to take chances in the first 45 that had cost them dear in the second.

He said: “I’m frustrated. In the first half we cut through Kilmarnock and should have been going in at half-time with a lead.

“But we weren’t ruthless enough and that came back to bite us.

“Up until the first goal there was nothing in the game but as soon as the goal went in for some reason we looked like a team that I have not seen for a number of weeks.

“We were playing as individuals and making really poor decisions.”

Kilmarnock manager Steve Clarke believes his side’s consistency is down to those players who feature occasionally rather than those who start every week.

“For me, it’s not so much about the 11 on the pitch as we’ve changed it around from time to time. We changed the goalkeeper and Daniel Bachmann’s in now and Jamie Macdonald had been excellent before.” “There are going to be ups and downs, slaps in the face and poor results. It is about how you bounce back, how you handle it.”

Those aren’t my words, they are Dundee boss Jim Mcintyre’s. However I agree entirely with what he said in the Rugby Park media room after Saturday’s game.

Killie may be flying high at the top of the Premiership at the moment but the Dark Blues would have travelled down to Ayrshire quietly confident that they could take something from the fixture.

Mcintyre’s men had put together a four-game unbeaten run and had shown bags of resilience to secure a draw against Rangers in their previous match despite being reduced to 10 men in just the 20th minute when Nathan Ralph was sent off.

Twenty-four hours before that encounter at Dens, Killie had suffered a 5-1 thrashing at Celtic Park so there were reasons for cautious optimism from the 284 Dundee fans who made the long trip down to Kilmarnock.

The Dark Blues certainly had chances – as did Killie – in the first half but as soon as Kirk Broadfoot scored the second-half opener for the hosts, there only looked like being one winner.

Admittedly, when Killie tails are up, there are few sides in the country who can handle their attacking threat, but Dundee fell well short of the performance levels they showed against Rangers.

They have to hit that benchmark again – and quickly.

As Mcintyre admitted, there will be bumps in the road but considering Dundee’s precarious position at the bottom of the Premiership, they cannot afford too many more of them like the Killie one.