The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
No excuses left as Dundee hit new low with defeat in Perth
Eight games into the Premiership season and still chasing their first victory. For six of the first seven matches, Dundee had come away from defeats or draws feeling they deserved more for their efforts. The eighth contest, however, there was no more of that rueful disappointment from the Dark Blues.
Second-best for much of the contest at McDiarmid Park, a poor Dundee showing was swept aside by St Johnstone in a 3-1 victory.
Two first-half goals from Chris Kane were added to by a Stevie May strike seconds after the restart to put Saints in cruise control at McDiarmid Park.
Ryan Sweeney would get a goal back to end the Dark Blues’ five-match goalscoring drought but it was too little too late.
With a two-week international break ahead, that has left some soul searching to be done at Dens Park.
The league’s bottomplaced side need to be woken from their slumber before their predicament becomes critical.
“Up until Saturday we’ve been playing well, creating lots of chances, limiting the chances of other teams and coming away from games feeling hard done by,” said striker Cillian Sheridan, who came off the bench at half-time.
“Saturday was the first day where we really had to wake up.
“This isn’t like the games before. We have to really look at ourselves.
“Saturday was the worst we’ve been this season. We didn’t do anything we had been doing in the games beforehand.
“We have to take what’s coming our way now in terms of analysis of the game and what we didn’t do. It’s definitely the first time we can’t say anything positive about a game.”
Sheridan has made just one league start since signing in the summer and watched on again from the bench as Dundee fell 2-0 behind in the first half.
He made his seventh appearance of the season at the break and made an impact in the second period, earning the only sliver of praise for the team performance from boss James McPake.
The contest, however, was ended just 30 seconds after the restart as Stevie May made it 3-0.
“We shot ourselves in the foot to really give ourselves a decent chance to get back into it,” Sheridan added.
“Fair enough we finished the game with a little bit of pressure on their goal but it was too little, too late at that stage.
“We have to be ready for the analysis of the game because there will be a lot of things to pick out.
“We definitely have to make things harder for teams. In this league you can’t give teams head starts.”
McPake admitted his Dundee side “looked like a Championship team”.
The Dens boss was restricted to taking a place in the stand after picking up a red card last weekend after the 1-0 home defeat to Rangers.
He wasn’t at all happy with what he saw from there, however, as his team remain rooted to the bottom of the Premiership.
“I’m not throwing them under the bus because I made a stupid mistake last week, but the players need to look themselves in the mirror,” McPake said.
“Particularly tonight. It was down to whoever wanted it more, simple as that. St Johnstone rolled their sleeves up, they wanted it more and they cut us open at will.
“Our defence as a team was ridiculously poor. It doesn’t show any bravery when you are 3-0 down to go and play.
“We created chances and to be fair to Cillian Sheridan, he caused them bother when he came on.
“Other than that, I’m struggling to find positives if I’m honest.”
The travelling away support made their feelings clear at half-time and again as the game came to a close.
And McPake admits the fans deserve more from their team.
“The fans have every right to not be happy, if I was a fan in there I would be making my frustration clear because that is not good enough,” he added.
“If that is what they are paying for to come and watch then I would not be paying to come and watch, especially that first half.”
The reverse sees Dundee head into the second international break of the season still searching for their first league win of the season.
Next up is Aberdeen in a fortnight and McPake says there will be plenty of hard work done between now and then.
“These guys have given me everything but today is probably the first time since Ayr at Dens in March where I can say that was nowhere near good enough,” he said.
“It’s not the Championship, no disrespect, we were against much better opposition.
“And I backed them. I backed them to the hilt. Take Celtic away, but other than that today is the worst I have felt.
“Today we looked like a Championship team if I am being honest.
“The good thing – some might say it is not good – but for me the good thing is we have two weeks to work on things, and there’s a lot to work on.
“We have time to get a wee bit of freshness back into the side.”