McCann proud his side finally break their league duck

NEIL McCANN hailed his Dundee heroes after they at last grabbed their first league win of the season.

The Dens Park boss watched his ten-man battlers triumph in a five-goal affair thanks to AJ Leitch-Smith’s double and Sofien Moussa’s spot-kick.

The victory helps relieve the pressure on the muchchanged Dark Blues whose manager had nothing but praise for his team. McCann said: ‘I told the players to relax, not to worry and I would take the flak for us not winning games.

‘I asked them to be brave on the ball and play from the back and they did that.

‘We had some fantastic performances and some exceptional ones, I am so proud of the players.

‘I felt we stood up to an exceptional St Johnstone team who were third in the league coming here and we got our rewards for it.

‘Defensively we were compact and very sound.

‘It was a crazy ten or fifteen minutes towards the end there.

‘I thought the first penalty was clear-cut and then the second one that AJ got I wasn’t sure about but it was contact in the box, so I was screaming for it. The final one with Darren (O’Dea) and Ando (Steven Anderson) could have gone either way.

‘But it made things difficult for us towards the end, so I’m just glad we were able to see it out.’

Meanwhile, St Johnstone manager Tommy Wright reckoned referee Alan Muir was wrong to chop off Anderson’s late header which would have made it 2-2, while also questioning Dundee’s penalty. Wright said: ‘I have to watch what I say or I’ll end up in a lot of trouble.

‘First of all, we gave away two shocking goals, so we have to look at ourselves.

‘But the game turns on two incidents. The first, Ando has jumped higher than the Dundee player and got up early, so I have no idea why that’s called a foul.

‘And the second, for Dundee’s penalty, it’s beyond me how you can give a penalty for that. I have been to see Alan and he said it was body contact, which is incredible as Richard (Foster) won the ball.

‘It just doesn’t add up. He showed character to give the penalty against O’Dea for pulling because he’d already warned him.

‘I have no idea how he makes that decision against us. But we have to look at ourselves, take away the referee and we have given away two terrible goals.’