Boss Jim McIntyre believes the six minutes of injury time played by Bobby Madden at Dens Park yesterday was too long.
However, the Dundee gaffer refused to blame the referee for the heart-breaking loss to Celtic that came via an Odsonne Edouard strike in the final few seconds of that extra period.
When he did finally blow for time, home supporters booed the whistler off the park and clearly believed he’d cost their team a point.
For Jim, though, the failure to take an excellent opportunity to snatch victory just seconds earlier was the cause of his team’s agonising demise.
That came when substitute Andy Dales shot straight at Hoops keeper Scott Bain from the edge of the area when a better option seemed to play a pass.
It allowed Celtic to go up the park and capitalise on an error by home skipper Martin Woods and grab the winner.
“I fail to see where six minutes comes from. I thought that was too much time added on but, having said that, it’s not the reason,” he said.
“We had a great opportunity on the counter attack with two minutes to go and we’ve got to be better.
“That’s the reason we are where we are because we’ve been going into so many good areas in each of the last few games and we’re not punishing teams.
“We didn’t do what Celtic did. They were ruthless and that’s why we’ve not picked up enough points since I’ve come.
“There has been plenty of positive play, plenty of areas we’ve got into but we need to be better in the final third.
“It’s the only thing that’s going to get you out of the situation that you’re in – winning games.”
Returning to Madden’s decision to play on for so long, Jim confirmed he had spoken to the referee to get his reasoning.
“He said there were a couple of head knocks, so that was the reason why. It’s generally about three but there were a couple of knocks, so I could understand maybe four. Six was a surprise.”
The defeat, along with Hamilton Accies’ surprise win over Hearts on Saturday, means Dundee are now six points from safety down in the top flight drop zone.
The postponement of St Mirren’s game at St Johnstone on Saturday because of snow means the Dark Blues remain a point above bottom.
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