Forster’s strike fires Dark Blues into second spot
Dundee eased themselves alongside Inverness Caley Thistle in second place in the Championship table with a hardearned win over Queen of the South.
And it was a victory described by Dens Park boss James Mcpake as: “Hard-earned and a really professional performance.”
He added: “It’s a hard place to come to get anything and on our second-half performance, I felt we really deserved it.
“We were solid defensively and getting into the opposition box and creating goalmouth chances.”
Both teams found the swirling wind conditions difficult to master in the opening stages with the strong gusts just giving Dundee the edge.
Josh Meekings in particular posed early problems for the Dumfries defenders with his long throw-ins creating constant danger in the goalmouth.
But the first real chance fell to Queens when they broke from defence and Deimantas Petravicius was put through in the clear, but his shot was easily held by the keeper.
There was a setback for Queens on the quarter hour when Abdul Osman limped off following a tackle and had to be replaced by Lewis Kidd.
Defences were well on top throughout the opening stages and chances few and far between.
Graham Dorrans did get the better of his markers on one occasion but his effort was just over the top.
Dundee came within inches of making the breakthrough when Andrew Nelson got on the end of a cross from Meekings only to see his header scrape the outside of the post.
Then keeper Ross Stewart was thankful to stop a deflected effort from Kane Hemmings.
Queens best effort at this stage followed a free kick from Stephen Dobbie which saw Callum Semple
QOS:
(3-5-2) Stewart 7, Mercer 6, Holt 6, Wilson 6, Semple 6, Kilday 6, Devine 6 Hamilton 81), Osman (Kidd 18 4), Pybus 7, Petravicius 6 (Oliver 73 4), Dobbie 6. Unused – Leighfield, Ledger, Irving, Paton.
DUNDEE:
(3-5-2) Hazard 7, Forster 6, Meekings 7, Berra 6, Elliott 6, Mcdaid 6, Byrne 6, Mcgowan 6 (Kerr 81), Dorrans 7, Nelson 6 (Crankshaw 69 5), Hemmings 7. Unused –Hamilton, Field, Robertson, Cameron, Strachan.
get the better of the defenders with a header which went wide of goal.
Dundee came close just after the break and it was another long throw from Meekings that first gave Christophe Berra an opening. But keeper Ross Stewart leapt across goal to pull down his header and then the keeper touched a header from Jordan Foster over the bar.
The Dens Park side had Queens
pinned in defence in the opening stages of the second period but were almost caught out by a break when Berra was forced to head past his own post to clear a raid.
Appropriately enough, it was a long throw-in from Hemmings that led to the Dundee breakthrough in 72 minutes.
The Queens defenders failed to clear it and keeper Stewart was
forced to palm the ball out and Jordan Foster was on the spot to ram it home.
Queens struggled to get back into the game but it was Dundee who could have added another when Hemmings put an effort over the bar.
Queen of the South manager Alan Johnston was clearly disappointed by the result and said: “It’s difficult to take.”