Adam howler sets up doomed Dundee for the second tier
Dens Park side all but relegated in Paisley after dismal campaign littered with poor performances
A2 0
T least Mark McGhee can turn the heating back on. Barring a miracle, Dundee are heading down to the Championship and few on Dens Road will argue they deserve anything else.
Where the blame lies is anyone’s guess. While the damage was already being done – the manager joined midway through what is now a run of just one win in six months against Premiership opponents – the McGhee gamble has not paid off. Nor has the scattergun recruitment policy of signing players based purely on vibes of days past.
This was another afternoon to forget for Dundee and they’ have had too many of them this season. Charlie Adam, inexplicably, sent St Mirren on their way with a horror assist for Alex Greive, before a Curtis Main howitzer put all but the final nail in the coffin.
Livingston’s late leveller against St Johnstone means they can still mathematically escape but, with a six-point, seven-goal swing needed, there is more chance of Sean Dillon being treated to a civic reception at Dens Park.
“We didn’t play well,” said McGhee. “We have to think St Johnstone will take at least a point. We have to play for our pride.”
The fact Dundee – now winless in 11 attempts under McGhee – still had the faintest chance of survival was more of a sorry indictment of St Johnstone’s struggles as it was their own staying power and even the teamsheet was delivered with more of a whiff of desperation than genuine hope.
Zak Rudden was in from the start – one of two changes – offering more oomph alongside Danny Mullen, Niall McGinn and Luke McCowan. Their gameplan amounted to little more than what it had done all season: get the ball to Adam and hope he turned back the clock to 2010 for a few fleeting moments.
With less than five minutes played and Dundee having started brightly, he did just that, strolling to the edge of the box, gliding away from his marker and playing such a ball so reminiscent of his Blackpool days it could easily have been DJ Campbell getting on the
We didn’t play well... we have to play at least for our pride
end of it. How Adam must wish it had been.
Rather than finding Mullen, Rudden or, really, anyone in blue, he had inexplicably passed it straight to the onrushing Greive, who made no mistake. Gallingly for the doomed guests, they had been the better team in the early stages but it was the Saints who now had the momentum.
A flurry of chances came and went, the pick of the bunch being a fine Main header. Tempers flared. Adam booted the ball away and screamed at an assistant. He later rifled a free-kick straight into the wall. Mullen – fairly – cried foul after being pulled back.
Dundee had to do something and, to their credit, they did. With the freedom of a team that had suddenly shaken the shackles of impending relegation, they stormed forward, forcing a string of corners and a fine save from Jak Alnwick when Sweeney got on the end of Adam’s inviting delivery. Minutes later Jordan McGhee crashed an effort against the post; the Saints’ goal was creaking.
But much like the first half, St Mirren went forward with their first attack and scored. You would be hard pressed to lay the blame solely at the foot of a Dundee door this time but they simply gave Main too much space. His finish, whacked into the roof of Harrison Sharp’s net, was not that of a forward who had failed to do the same in 27 previous Premiership games. There was no way back for Dundee. There likely won’t be at all.
“We are starting to see now the fruits of the hard work,” said Stephen Robinson. “The boys have played with an intensity the last two games.”