Dundee’s hopes of ending their decades-long wait for European football are hanging by a thread.
St Mirren have a five-point lead with just three games remaining after they deservedly grabbed victory at Dens Park.
The Dark Blues put in one of their worst performances of the season at a time they could least afford to.
The 3-1 scoreline didn’t begin tell the story of the difference between the sides.
Courier Sport was there to analyse the action at Dens Park.
Defending
The Dundee backline will no doubt squirm when they watch the footage from this game.
Crucial moments required cool heads but there was a nervousness throughout Saturday’s contest.
Right from the first attack, the writing was on the wall.
Mikael Mandron beat Ricki Lamie to a high ball and St Mirren won a corner inside 10 seconds.
They had three corners inside three minutes with James Bolton putting a free header wide from the third.
Much of Dundee’s success this season has been achieved as a team.
This failure was a team effort too, sadly. Errors and misjudgements were spread throughout the side.
The first goal came after a poor Aaron Donnelly tackle that gave away a free-kick. The first cross was cleared before the ball was crossed back in. Mo Sylla failed to clear at the front post and Jordan McGhee got the clearance wrong. Straight to Alex Gogic, 1-0.
The second goal could have been avoided by a better initial clearance from Malachi Boateng. Then neither Amadou Bakayoko nor Antonio Portales dealt with the ball back in. It was allowed to bounce less than 30 yards from goal.
Portales was then beaten in the air and Donnelly messed up his clearance. Scott Tanser in behind, 2-0.
And the third goal summed it all up. Donnelly had two men out wide but chose to go with the man rather than the ball and Keanu Baccus was allowed to wander into the box unimpeded.
The ball was cut back to Mandron and amid the statuesque defending he found Toyosi Olusanya at the far post to smash home.
Tony Docherty
The Dundee boss would have been forgiven for coming into the post-match press conference absolutely furious at his team.
This, though, was a more circumspect reaction that might have been expected. No slams or blasts to headline about, though his team deserved it.
Instead he demanded a response at Hearts next time out.
How the Dundee boss decides to set up his team for that trip to Tynecastle will be interesting.
Of late, the Dark Blues have performed better in a back four setup. With hindsight, Docherty may regret changing to a back three.
That matched up with St Mirren’s setup. They played it far better, though.
Dundee did go back to a four-man defence after Michael Mellon got a goal back but, by then, the damage was done.
Europe
It looks very unlikely Dundee will be able to overhaul St Mirren now.
A five-point gap is possible to overcome. However, the three games left include trips to Hearts and then Rangers.
Tynecastle is now must-win.
At worst, the Dark Blues need to pick up some points to avoid ending an excellent season on a bum note.
They did so in 2015, picking up just one point post-split. In 2003, Dundee also failed to win any of the post-split fixtures.
There’s some making up to do from this team to avoid similar endings to good campaigns.
Much better is required next weekend.
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