The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Stewart: lessons learned for derby
Striker disappointed by Dark Blues’ second-half Dens display
For the opening 135 minutes of the season, Dundee were superb.
Unfortunately, that level of performance could not be extended to 180 minutes and the second- half of Saturday’s game against Hearts ultimately cost them dear.
The Dark Blues’ Greg Stewart admits they should have put the game beyond the Jambos in the first half but he hopes lessons have been learned ahead of tomorrow’s derby clash with United at Tannadice.
He said: “We took a lot of confidence from the win last week over Kilmarnock and carried on from where we left off.
“We played some good stuff in the first half and could have been two or three up at half-time.
“But we just never turned up in the second half and you don’t get away with that playing in this league.
“You can’t switch off and it just wasn’t good enough for 45 minutes. All the boys know that and we need to put it behind us and look forward to Tuesday.
“We need to kill teams off and last season as well we were a wee bit nervy at home.
“The boys were disappointed not to at least get a draw. The gaffer said last week was the perfect performance and maybe we were too confident going into this one.
“We started so well and after getting the goal maybe we came out in the second half and thought if we just turned up then we’d win the game but you won’t get away with that against teams like Hearts who will be pushing at least for a top six place this season.
“We need to learn from it and move on to Tuesday. You always want to do well in derby games for the fans.”
Dundee made a superb start, opening the scoring in just the fifth minute when Stewart crossed from the right for Kane Hemmings to confidently head home past Neil Alexander.
The Dark Blues then had a huge let-off when Hearts’ Jamie Walker was played straight through on goal but keeper Scott Bain saved well and then Walker headed the rebound over the bar.
Just seconds later, it was Alexander to the rescue for Hearts when Hemmings played an inviting ball across goal towards McGowan, with the keeper making a great save to stop what looked a certain goal by the Dundee midfielder.
The Dark Blues came agonisingly close to extending their lead in the 18th minute when Gary Harkins played a great one-two with Stewart but “Jeebsy” fired his shot into the side netting.
Hearts came more into the game and really should have equalised in the 37th minute but Spanish striker Juanma missed the target with a point-blank header with the goal at his mercy.
Alexander came to Hearts’ rescue once more in first-half stoppage time when he saved a goalbound Kevin Holt header.
Jambos boss Robbie Neilson gave his players a round of the guns at half-time and the rollicking seemed to have the desired effect.
In the 56th minute Hearts were awarded a spot-kick with referee Craig Thomson adjudging that James McPake had handled in his penalty area.
Juanma stepped up to calmly stroke the ball past the helpless Bain to draw his side level.
Then just five minutes later, the Jambos turned the game on its head.
The ball broke kindly for Juanma who advanced on goal, jinking into the box before shooting into the far corner of Bain’s net.
Dundee tried to claw their way back into the game and had a big shout for a penalty denied after Harkins had been blocked in the Hearts box but they rarely threatened as Hearts snuffed the life out of the game to hold on and take all three points.
There has been a lot of talk about Dundee possibly finishing above United in the league this season but Stewart insisted that is something that isn’t concerning him.
He added: “We aren’t worrying about trying to finish above United – just to do better than last season.
“If we could get into the top six again then we’d be delighted but there is talk of pushing for Europe.
“If we learn from our second half performance then I think we’ll be up there.”
Stewart’s boss Hartley was left to rue that his side did not capitalise on what he felt was their first- half dominance.
He said: “It should have been done by half-time going by the chances.
“Second-half, they changed it, got in about us and we didn’t deal with it.”