Tale of the tape as Dark Blues head into crunch period

Suddenly from looking a force to be reckoned with in the Premiership, Dundee’s fortunes have turned in the wrong direction.

With half-an-hour to go and leading 2-1 at Ross County last Saturday the Dark Blues were set to go eight points clear of the bottom.

But they lost 3-2 and, following their 1-0 defeat at Hibs on Tuesday were only two points ahead of basement boys County and St Johnstone, having played one game more.

After the 3-0 loss at Rangers on December 4 , it is three Dundee defeats on the spin.

But what can we take from Easter Road?

Own goals

If there’s a way to shoot themselves in the foot Dundee seem to find it. That’s three matches on the bounce in which they’ve put through their own net.

At Rangers, Ryan Sweeney beat Adam Legzdins, technically so did Liam Fontaine. Then there was Danny Mullen’s unfortunate one at County.

And on Tuesday night, the own-goal to beat them all was Paul Mcmullan’s diving header. It really was a wonderful finish.

Right now, teams don’t have to work very hard to score against Dundee – the Dark Blues will do it for them.

Ryan Sweeney

The big defender has had a tough couple of weeks and looked a bit frazzled in the opening stages against Hibs and Martin Boyle.

He did win just about everything in the air, though, and looked more assured the longer the match went on.

However, picking up a second yellow card for dissent with five seconds to go was just daft.

Dundee’s defence is down to the bare bones, now they are another central defender light.

His first yellow already carried a suspension, thanks to five already being picked up. That will see him suspended for the Livingston game on December 29.

Now he’ll miss Saturday’s visit of Hearts, too.

Max Anderson

The huge shining light at Easter Road was the second-half performance of Max Anderson. The young midfielder bossed the middle of the park after the break.

With players like Paul

Mcgowan and Joe Newell in there, that’s no mean feat. Dubbed “magnificent” by his manager, there’s no arguing with Maxy.

Squad

Injuries are biting hard right now for Dundee – on top of Sweeney’s absence for Saturday, James Mcpake will be without Lee Ashcroft, Shaun Byrne, Cillian Sheridan and likely Charlie Adam. Those are some key players.

Right now, the starting XI picks itself and it doesn’t seem like there’s much competition coming from the bench.

Leigh Griffiths and Jason Cummings came on again against Hibs but were barely involved.

We haven’t seen Corey Panter play a minute of league football while Christie Elliott is out of favour.

It’s obvious the manager doesn’t fancy his options for freshening things up.

Looking ahead

Hearts, then Aberdeen, Livingston and Dundee United before the winter break.

The first three Dundee have taken points from already this term, they need to be taking some more. They may be short of bodies but it’s a crucial point of the season.