Dee still bottom despite fighting back at Hibees
They went toe-to-toe with Hibs in their best battling performance of the season. But Dundee were still floored at full-time after falling further behind in their basement battle with St Mirren.
The Dee found themselves two behind and reeling after just 30 minutes at Easter Road. But two goals in as many minutes either side of half-time saw the Dark Blues seize the initiative against an uncharacteristically sloppy Hibs.
Sickeningly, Jim Mcintyre’s men still slipped two further points behind St Mirren, who claimed a shock win over Hearts.
But the Dundee boss insists his side’s performance should give everyone connected with the club hope.
“Obviously, we got off to the worst possible start, but I thought the reaction was excellent,” he said.
“We managed to get that all-important goal which gave us a bit of belief back.
“I saw plenty of heart from my players when we went behind at home to St Mirren – a team we’re fighting with at the bottom end of the table. “But coming to Easter Road is a different kettle of fish. They’ve got a quality squad, so from that side of things we had to stand up to a lot.
“Equally, I thought we were very threatening ourselves and, with a bit of better care in the last third of the pitch at times, we could have been in again.
“But I’m delighted with the response.
“We had Paul Mcgowan playing his first game for a number of weeks, while Martin Woodss hadn’t trained in a team environment for weeks before he came here.
“These players are still getting up to speed, so the effort they put in was superb.”
For Mcintyre’s side, the international break offered the best part of a fortnight to prepare for Hibs.
But, inside a minute, their game-plan appeared to go up in smoke.
With precious little to aim at, Hibs’ Daryl Horgan fired a speculative cross into the zone between Dee keeper Jack Hamilton and centre half Genseric Kusunga.
If Hamilton called – as he should have – Kusunga either didn’t hear or ignored it, and inexplicably headed the ball over the stranded Dark Blues goalie and into the net.
It was desperately poor stuff – of the kind Dundee fans are sick of seeing this season.
Disappointingly for the home punters, after going ahead, their side’s performance became sloppy at times, and Dundee capitalised in terms of possession.
It lacked end product though – and they were punished for their aimlessness when Ryan Porteous bulleted a back-post header past Hamilton from Stevie Mallan’s free-kick.
It was the third time Hibs had put the ball past Hamilton, having seen a Jamie Maclaren tap-in ruled out for offside on 10 minutes.
And, after extending their lead, Neil Lennon’s men settled into a comfortable rhythm.
Then, in the space of two minutes either side of halftime, the game turned on its head.
First, Kenny Miller gave Dundee hope in first-half timeadded on, sliding in to poke Nathan Ralph’s cross past Adam Bogdan from six yards.
Then, with Hibs still rocking after the break, Paul Mcgowan cut inside his marker and curled a neat finish into Bogdan’s right-hand corner to level the game.
From looking so comfortable, the Hibees are now winless in five games. Kenny Miller put in a terrific shift from start to finish – and bagged his second goal in as many games into the bargain. His experience and movement were vital for Dundee.