Dominant Dens men in fine spirits
DUNDEE spent the final months of 2016 flirting with the Premiership trapdoor.
But they go into 2017 with the top six in their sights after ripping sloppy St Johnstone apart.
The Dark Blues were dominant at Dens Park, with Faissal El Bakhtaoui and Kostadin Gadzhalov on target in the first half, before Saints’ Steven Anderson put through his own net after the break.
It was a win that stretched the Dee’s unbeaten run at home to five games – and gave their punters the perfect start to their Hogmanay celebrations.
And for Paul Hartley too, it was just the tonic after a rough few months.
The Dundee boss said: “It was the manner of it that pleased me most.
“In the first half we were great, some of our play was excellent, and in the second half we managed the game properly.
“We’ve got a clean sheet against difficult opposition – there aren’t many teams that will beat them 3-0. That was the pleasing thing today.
“We were excellent as a team, from the goalkeeper right through to Marcus Haber. They all deserve credit.”
Dundee were dealt an early blow by the absence of defensive stalwart Darren O’Dea.
The resultant switch to a 4-4-2 for the first time in weeks left the Dee backline scrambling as St Johnstone burst out of the starting blocks. Saints, who brought Danny Swanson back into the starting XI after a substitute appearance against Rangers in midweek, had third-placed Hearts in their sights after Aberdeen’s Friday night victory at Tynecastle.
But it wasn’t long before hearts were sinking in the away end.
Julen Etxabeguren sparked the move that led to Dundee’s opener with a scything challenge on Swanson 35 yards from the Dark Blues’ goal. Paul McGowan collected, sprayed wide to Marcus Haber, then watched as El Bakhtaoui side- footed the Canadian’s cross home at the near post with 15 minutes on the clock.
Saints pushed for an equaliser, and Blair Alston came close with a swerving 25 yard free-kick that cracked the bar.
But just before the break, Tommy
Wright’s side were undone when Gadzhalov capitalised on some uncharacteristically shocking Perth defending to fire past Zander Clark.
With their hopes of claiming even a point hanging by a thread, the visitors had to change something.
Initially, it appeared homegrown front man Chris Kane, on at halftime for the battling Liam Craig, was the switch they needed.
With Kane stretching the Dundee rearguard with runs off the shoulder, Saints star ted to asser t themselves.
But their good work was undone just before the hour when Paul Paton was robbed 35 yards from Saints’ goal by Mark O’Hara.
Paton hadn’t been enjoying the best of games, but it moved into nightmare territory when O’Hara passed wide to Tom Hateley, whose driven cross was knocked into his own net by the luckless Anderson.
Perth boss TommyWright insisted he was happy with his team’s performance despite the scoreline.
“That’s probably as well as we’ve played with the ball away from home,” said Wright. “We created a lot of opportunities but our final ball let us down at times.”