Dens manager will address late lapse

DU N DE E boss Ja mes McPa ke was tak ing i n the good a nd bad today as he analysed Saturday’s victory over Dunfermline.

The 4-3 win at Dens was a much-welcomed three points for James and his side as they closed the gap on second-placed Inverness Caley to four points.

However, while the Dens gaffer was delighted to see his side pick up their first win in five league outings, he wasn’t prepared to let the result gloss over the final 25 minutes when the Pars struck back twice.

To make matters worse, Stevie Crawford’s side grabbed their second and third goals with only 10 men on the park following Greg Kiltie’s dismissal for two bookings after 62 minutes.

The Dens boss said: “We were cruising and should have cruised to victory but then Dunfermline got back into the game.

“So it’s certainly not good enough from our point of view in terms of game-management.

“When the dust settles, it’s a big three points which we badly needed. But defensively we were really poor which we need to look at.”

That near calamitous collapse is something James will address with his players i n training this week as he admitted his team made life extremely difficult for themselves.

The Dee boss continued: “It’s about the performance and, for about 65 minutes of that game, it was OK. Then we made it hard for ourselves.

“I’ve never come in after any game and said that the points are all that matters – absolutely not.”

The Dark Blues were checking on injured duo Declan McDaid and Jordan McGhee after the pair had to go off injured.

Dundee boss James McPake is concerned at the way his team nearly threw away the result against Dunfermline on Saturday.