IT’S FAR FROM 4 GONE..
Dundee cut gap on Queen’s to keep the title race alive
Gary Bowyer watched his Dundee players close the gap on leaders Queen’s Park to just four points last night – and hailed the win over ayr United “one of the best” of the campaign.
The Dark Blues opened the scoring through skipper Ryan Sweeney with Dipo Akinyemi equalising shortly after.
But Bowyer’s side stormed into the lead once more after the interval with Alex Jakubiak on the mark before Luke McCowan wrapped up the points late on.
The vital win keeps Dundee in the title hunt with the Honest Men now four points behind them in third place.
And thrilled gaffer Bowyer said: “I am delighted. I think it was one of the best performances of the season.
“I thought we really took the game to Ayr. We started off ever
so well and I am delighted we scored from a set-piece.
“I am disappointed with the equaliser but I was really impressed with how we came back from that.”
Ayr had a chance in just the second minute when Dundee’s Jordan Marshall tried to chest the ball back to Adam Legzdins with Sam Ashford nipping in but his shot was blocked by the keeper.
The same player then had another opportunity but his header from a Reece MacAlear corner was cleared off the line by Zach Robinson.
The Dark Blues striker had an opening of his own at the other end shortly after when he linked well with Jakubiak with Ayr keeper Charlie Albinson having to pull off a fine acrobatic save from Robinson’s shot.
But the keeper could not prevent Dundee scoring in 13 minutes when McCowan swung a corner with Sweeney sending a glancing near-post header flying past Albinson and into the back of the net.
That lead only lasted four minutes with Akinyemi racing onto a through ball from Paddy Reading before beating a Sweeney challenge to calmly slot past the exposed Legzdins for his 22nd goal of the season.
It was end-to-end stuff with McCowan next to have a shot at goal but Albinson palmed his fierce drive away.
Dundee tested Albinson again in the 37th minute when Luke Hannant delivered a cross from the left with the keeper having to make a smart low stop at his post from a Robinson header.
Ayr were first to threaten just seconds after the restart but Akinyemi’s ambitious strike flew well wide.
McCowan then found time and space in the Ayr box but his composure deserted him and he blasted his shot over.
Dee pressure was building with McCowan playing in Josh Mulligan who hit a superb ball across the face of goal but there were no takers.
However, the Dark Blues took the lead for the second time in the 59th minute as Robinson made a strong run into the Ayr box, beating two defenders, before teeing up Jakubiak.
Although Albinson got a hand to the striker’s shot, he could not keep it out of the net.
Jakubiak had a great chance to double his tally when he embarked on a lung-busting run all the way to the edge of the Ayr box but he smashed his shot high over.
Dundee finally put the game beyond Ayr in the 80th minute when McCowan curled a shot home off a defender.
Fizzing Ayr boss Lee Bullen branded the second-half display “unacceptable”. He said: “We were in the game other than the first goal we lose which was really poor. From there we got a foothold and controlled long spells of the first half.
“The second half was unacceptable. To a man, individual battles we lost every single one of them. If you want to be successful in this league, sometimes you just have to grind and grind and I was really disappointed in the second half.
“The biggest bonus we have is a quick game to get back on track on Friday against Cove.”