Dundee banish the blues with first campaign win
Jubilant James Mcpake hailed his Dundee players as they made amends for their Hearts hammering by scraping past 10-man Morton at Dens Park.
Mcpake watched his promotion hopefuls bag their first win of the new Championship campaign thanks to on-loan Celtic kid Jonathan Afolabi’s fourth-minute winner.
The Dark Blues bounced back in wake of their 6-2 Tynecastle thrashing and were helped along the way by raging Robbie Muirhead, who was sent off for David Hopkin’s visitors in 73 minutes for two yellow-card dissent offences.
But Mcpake had nothing but praise for his title contenders having watched them win ugly on Tayside.
Mcpake said: “It was a dangerous game. Morton came here in good form and we were on the back of a really poor performance last Friday night.
“We showed loads of character. It wasn’t pretty but it doesn’t need to be.
“I’m delighted for the players because they needed that.
“It was a tough week for them. They were hurting and maybe that was a game we would have lost last season.”
Dundee made five changes from the side that went down 6-2 at Hearts in their opening fixture.
Keeper Jack Hamilton was dropped and replaced between the sticks by former Port Vale man Calum Ferrie.
Defender Jordon Forster was missing after being ruled out for six weeks due to a broken bone in his foot.
Finlay Robertson and Paul
Mcgowan both dropped to the bench, while striker Osman Sow disappeared altogether.
Morton arrived on Tayside buoyed by their opening-day 1-0 victory away to Alloa, but they soon found themselves behind after just five minutes.
Jordan Marshall carved out an inchperfect cross for Afolabi, who drilled home a left-foot volley past helpless visiting keeper Aidan Mcadams.
It was a sweet strike from the on-loan Celt, who looked in the mood to do further damage.
Soon after, the 20-year-old striker caught a glimpse of goal again but had his shot deflected wide for a corner.
Morton’s first chance came in 36 minutes when Cameron Blues turned swiftly inside the box, only to fire his shot straight into Ferrie’s arms.
Within minutes of the restart, Dundee midfielder Charlie Adam was close to pulling the trigger until Markus Fjortoft defied him with a well-timed sliding challenge.
The visitors were then left with a mountain to climb by Muirhead, whose angry verbal outburst left referee Gavin Ross with no option but to send him packing.
The Ton did threaten in injury-time through substitute Aidan Nesbitt but his low effort was well-gathered by Ferrie.
Cappielow manager Hopkin said: “I’m devastated because we deserved three points. We switched off four minutes into the game and let the ball come into our box – it was a great finish from their player.
“After that, I thought we controlled the game and wanted to play football. We were the better team.
“Dundee looked out on their feet at the end. If we had got one goal, I’m sure we would have got another.”