Dundee didn’t half leave it late against Bonnyrigg Rose on Saturday but there’s still plenty to be encouraged about at Dens Park.
People will say they got lucky with scoring so late but the amount of chances they were creating it was no surprise when it finally did come.
Having come up against Bonnyrigg a few times while at Lochee United, I was fully expecting it to take a bit of time to break them down – maybe not that amount of time, though!
And the Lowland League club started off really well, getting in front and defending well by being organised.
However, look at the game honestly and Dundee’s struggles came from a mix of poor decisions from the referee and bad finishing from the Dark Blues.
That made life difficult, in particular the Danny Mullen and Osman Sow ones in the second half stand out when they tried to finish with the wrong foot each time.
The penalties, meanwhile, were bad calls.
The first definitely wasn’t while the second was at least debatable.
Searching for the right balance
Jordan Marshall got too tight initially but backed off before the player went down. The left-back gave the referee a decision to make but the official should have spotted it wasn’t enough to send the Rose player over.
In fact, Dundee’s shout for the one on Sow was more of a foul than the two given to Bonnyrigg.
However, James McPake’s side got over those issues, even if it took longer than they’d have liked, and got themselves through.
I thought they got the balance of the team spot on against Hearts but it wasn’t quite clicking on Saturday.
That’s no disrespect to Lee Ashcroft who did a decent enough job as a makeshift right-back.
But you could see he was wanting to come inside more often than he should’ve.
Against a packed defence you need width but it’s not his position and he did well considering.
I’m not sure the midfield worked either with the loss of Jordan McGhee.
I think they missed that running ability to move the Rosey Posey around more.
In saying that, I am a huge fan of Fin Robertson and think he’s got massive potential.
I’m just not sure how he fits in with Shaun Byrne doing the holding role so well.
And it seems like Max Anderson is ahead of him right now after the way he’s started the season, bringing a lot to the team.
Normally I’d say it might be a good time for Robertson to head out on loan to get more game time.
Go play somewhere else for a wee while, come back a better player and get back in the team.
However, yesterday’s announcement to stop the lower leagues for the time being has probably knocked that on the head.
It is worrying times for everyone right now, not just people involved in football.
Hopefully, we’re back to some sort of normality soon.
Dundee United are having their second go at playing St Johnstone tonight and it is a big game for both sides.
I think criticism of the game getting called off was a little bit much on Saturday – it was clear United tried everything they could to get the game on.
I know it doesn’t look good with the injury issues they’ve got but they did offer to play later on, it’s not like anybody left a hosepipe running in the corner on Friday night!
I’m expecting tonight to be a pretty tight affair, looking at the recent records of both sides.
What I think might tilt the odds in favour of the Tangerines is how Lawrence Shankland has been looking in the last couple of weeks.
He looks more like his old self and I’d be wary if I was in the Saints camp.
The goals aren’t exactly flowing in either camp so it might just take the one goal to win it.
After I’ve said that, it’ll probably be 4-4 or something.
The biggest shame on Saturday was having to postpone the Jim McLean tribute planned by United.
It is a big moment for the club and one I’ve no doubt they’ll do right.
It may even give the team a wee boost in the game.
I’m pretty sure Micky Mellon will try to use it as motivation for his players because this would be a very good game to win.
Hopefully, they can do the tribute justice with a performance and victory.
It’s as if we are still living in the dark ages when people are throwing racist abuse at each other.
It’s difficult to believe we still live in a world where it is rife, particularly on social media.
However, I have to applaud Dundee’s Jonathan Afolabi for how he’s handled the vile messages that came his way on Saturday night.
It’s good that he highlighted and called out how pathetic these people really are. As long as he knows the people who matter to him don’t have these sorts of views and it is just some random loser on the internet.
More needs to be done to stop it.
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