Dundee manager James McPake was absolutely right to change course at East End Park.
Having originally selected a back three against Dunfermline, it quickly became clear that the defence was in trouble as they fell 2-0 behind.
He moved to a four, having brought on substitutes Josh Todd and Declan McDaid, and it worked a treat.
There have been some coaches who would have persevered with it in face of all the evidence but he didn’t do that and Dundee ended up with a decent 2-2 draw as a result.
I also noted that there were strong words said at half-time and I think we have to remember than managers can’t lead players by the hand all the time – they do have responsibility for their own performances.
So I was not surprised to hear James admit that he told them some home truths at the interval, or that the players were “chatting” among themselves as well.
The positive thing for Dundee is that, despite not performing well for that first half, they still left with a point.
As a goalkeeper, I did feel for Jack Hamilton at that second Dunfermline goal when he didn’t deal with the cross and Kevin Nisbet scored.
Jack will be disappointed because he had done so well all summer. I am sure he will bounce back when they play Ayr at Dens on Saturday.
~ I won’t say I told you so but I did suggest that Arbroath would be making it tough for teams this season, especially at home.
That is exactly how things turned out at Gayfield when we drew 0-0 with Queen of the South on Saturday.
It was a great occasion all round, with the flag unfurling, a big crowd and a great atmosphere.
We didn’t get any goals but you have to put that down as a reasonable start for us.
I said to the gaffer Dick Campbell after the game that we are finding our feet and will improve. I really believe that.
I must say, though, that I thought some of the comments from the opposition manager (Allan Johnston) were a wee bit disrespectful (Johnston said: ‘We should be coming here and winning’).
Maybe we will keep that in mind when we go down to play them at Palmerston.
There were loads of positives for us: we had the ball in the net only to be ruled out for offside; Darren Jamieson started the season with a clean sheet; and we proved that we won’t be pushovers in the Championship.
We now head up to Inverness this weekend. They will be licking their wounds after that United result so it should be an interesting one.
