Dundee 2 - 1 Inverness CT

League - Championship
Tuesday, March 2nd, 2021, 7:00 PM at Dens Park, Dundee
Referee: Steven Kirkland
Dundee Inverness CT

Goalscorers
Max Anderson (10)
Jason Cummings (45)
Nikolay Todorov (75)

Team Managers
James McPake Neil McCann

Starting Eleven
Jack Hamilton
Christie Elliot
Lee Ashcroft
Liam Fontaine
Jordon Marshall
Paul McMullan
Max Anderson
Paul McGowan
Declan McDaid
Danny Mullen
Jason Cummings
Mark Ridgers
Robbie Deas
Cameron Harper
Wallace Duffy
Daniel Devine
Sean Welsh
Scott Allardice
James Keatings
Daniel Mackay
Shane Sutherland
Miles Storey

Bench
Cameron Kerr
Malachi Fagan-Walcott
Shaun Byrne
Adam Legzdins
Jonathan Afolabi
Finlay Robertson
Osman Sow
Cameron Mackay
Ryan Fyffe
Harry Nicolson
Brad Mckay
David Carson
James Vincent
Nikolay Todorov

Substitutions
Danny Mullen -> Osman Sow (53)
Max Anderson -> Shaun Byrne (87)
Jason Cummings -> Jonathon Afolabi (91)
David Carson for Scott Allardice (46)
Nikolay Todorov for Daniel Mackay (61)
Brad Mckay for Daniel Devine (77)

Bookings
Paul McGowan (60) Robbie Deas (63)
Sean Welsh (65)

Red Cards
None. None.
Appearances & Goals To Date
Mark Ridgers (GK) 143 apps -
Daniel Devine 99 apps4 goals
Robbie Deas 19 apps1 goal
Cameron Harper 29 apps -
Wallace Duffy 14 apps1 goal
Sean Welsh 56 apps7 goals
Scott Allardice 20 apps2 goals
James Keatings 47 apps11 goals
Daniel Mackay 43 apps6 goals
Miles Storey 85 apps21 goals
Shane Sutherland 106 apps8 goals
Brad Mckay (sub) 154 apps8 goals
David Carson (sub) 42 apps -
Nikolay Todorov (sub) 50 apps11 goals

Starting Lineup
Youngest Player:Cameron Harper (19 years 117 days)
Oldest Player:Sean Welsh (30 years 360 days)
Average Player Age:25 years 227 days
Domestic Players:9 (81.82 % of starting eleven)

Matchday Squad
Youngest Player:Cameron Harper (19 years 117 days)
Oldest Player:James Vincent (31 years 164 days)
Average Player Age:25 years 49 days
Domestic Players:13 (72.22 % of matchday squad)

First Team Debuts

Milestones
Nikolay Todorov played his 50th major competitive game for the Club.

Too little too late:

Dundee manager Jake McPake looked to have tightened his shoogely peg as first half goals from Max Anderson and Jason Cummings put Dundee in at the break two up. Inverness were out of sorts in a poor first forty-five. Nikolay Todorov pulled a goal back with fifteen minutes left heading home a Cammy Harper cross. Inverness mounted a mini-comeback but fell just short as Dundee held on for all three points.

Neil McCann returned to Dens Park where he had mixed fortunes as a player and manager. Tonight he would be in the away dugout with John Robertson on compassionate leave. His first game in charge was a 1-1 draw with Hearts on Friday night. Four days later and here we are at Dens Park looking to keep in touch with the teams in the top four.

David Carson was on the bench after two MotM performances and Roddy MacGregor was not in the squad, presumably injured. Daniel Mackay and Scott Allardice were in the starting XI. As expected, Dundee were without Charlie Adam due to the results of the positive covid testing at Dens Park.

Here's RiG with his match report :sad:

Grim, grim, grim.

Dundee were well on top at the start and although we pushed them back a bit they quickly re-established their dominance. They knew a high press against our back line would work given McCann's preference to play out from the back and players were often caught in possession.

Meanwhile, our defence looked haphazard any time a cross or long throw came anywhere near it. McDaid turning Duffy inside out for a good chunk of the first half before he eventually realised he could nullify him by sending him towards the bye line was criminal in how long it took to be employed. By that time though the damage was largely done.

McMullan was ripping Harper apart on the ICT left and he sent in a cross that found Max Anderson as he burst into the penalty area and although Ridgers did well to save his first effort the Dee player made no mistake at the second time of asking and put Dundee 1-0 up.

We rallied a little to push the home side back a bit and had some half chances but Dundee took a deserved two goal lead when a high ball into the box was missed and it landed at the feet of Cummings who spun round and whipped the ball into the net.

Prior to this Dundee had great chances falling the way of Mullen, Cummings and Anderson who all had goal bound efforts blocked by Deas or Ridgers. It was one way traffic in the first half and ICT could count themselves fortunate not to be further behind.

Half Time: 2-0

Second half was less eventful overall compared to the first. A suspiciously offside looking Storey broke through the Dundee defence but shot straight at Hamilton as the angle narrowed whilst Sow blazed over after good work by Cummings on a Dundee counter attack.

We did get one goal back when Harper sent over a delicious cross from the left touchline to find Toddy at the back post and he thumped a header past the flailing Hamilton. Great goal from the big striker and one wonders what he needs to do to get a start.

A similar move almost lead to an ill deserved equaliser but this time the header went wide.

Grim performance from us. As has been the case at times this season we are poor for about 75% of the game then improve markedly for the final 15 to 20 minutes or look like we might do something. I know we have important creative players like Doran and McDonald out but we should be still be doing better than we are. We created precious little for most of that game it is extremely concerning going into a very tough game on Saturday against Alloa. Go behind in that and I don't fancy our chances of turning it around into a much needed 3 points.

Match report written by tm4tj/RIG



Pld W D L F A +/- Pts
1. Hearts 18 12 3 3 44 20 24 39
2. Raith Rovers 16 8 3 5 32 24 8 27
3. Dunfermline 17 7 6 4 26 19 7 27
4. Dundee 16 6 6 4 30 30 0 24
5. Queen of the South 18 7 3 8 26 35 -9 24
6. Arbroath 18 5 6 7 15 20 -5 21
7. Inverness CT 16 4 7 5 24 21 3 19
8. Morton 17 4 7 6 16 22 -6 19
9. Ayr United 16 4 5 7 20 21 -1 17
10. Alloa Athletic 18 3 4 11 20 41 -21 13