Half an inch. That’s how close Dundee came to earning a massive three points from an enthralling goal-filled clash with Rangers.
A knackered Simon Murray smashed his final effort of the match goalwards, only to see it rebound off the inside of the post.
Half an inch, maybe even less, further to the left and Dundee have beaten Rangers in stoppage time.
Deservedly so, too.
However, a familiar failing raised it’s ugly head once more.
Dundee concede two goals a game in the Premiership, Rangers had conceded two goals in each of their last four league games.
Neither side can defend.
And so it proved.
Courier Sport was at Dens for the seven-goal thriller and picked out five key talking points.
Goals For
Let’s start with the good stuff. Despite the way the game ended, there was plenty of it.
Goals are not a problem for this Dundee side.
They are now only one goal short of last season’s entire league total.
This was the first time they’d scored three times against Rangers since 1992 and Simon Murray now has five goals in his last five Premiership matches.
Scott Tiffoney has two goals in his last two and Joe Shaughnessy has two in the last three games.
Fin Robertson racked up another assist as Dundee’s success from set-pieces continued.
And they should really have scored more.
Robertson had one disallowed in the opening half while Tiffoney missed a gilt-edged chance and twice the post was hit.
The first of those came through Seun Adewumi who missed an even better chance later on as he went through one-on-one with Jack Butland.
Charlie Reilly also had the opportunity to level things at 4-4 deep in stoppage time, only to be denied by a good Butland stop.
Stats-wise Dundee had greater expected goals than Rangers (2.51 to 2.35), they managed 15 shots with eight on target and created six ‘big chances’.
The attack is by no means an issue.
Goals Against
But the defence certainly is. That is not news, of course.
However, it does get repeated as much as watching Sky Sports News late at night.
Just as Dundee could have scored more goals, they could easily have conceded more.
Cyriel Dessers on his own had 12 shots on goal, nine on target. That means Trevor Carson saved eight shots from one striker alone.
The Dark Blues allowed Rangers 22 efforts on their goal, with 12 on target.
There was also a goal disallowed for offside early in the second half.
That’s now 67 conceded in the Premiership, 10 worse than any other side, and 76 in all competitions.
If they continue at the current rate of 2.2 goals conceded per game, Dundee will blast past their worst ever league defence of 80 goals conceded by letting in 83.
That would be a Premiership record (since 2013).
Going further back, 83 goals conceded would equal Aberdeen in 1999/00 and Gretna in 2007/08 as the worst top-flight defences in the 21st century.
Tired legs or second half change?
Leading 3-1 with 15 minutes to go, Dundee should have seen the game out. No question about it.
When it goes to 3-3 and you’re in stoppage time, a sensible team would take no chances and ensure they gain a point.
A point would have seen the Dark Blues out of the relegation play-off spot by overtaking Kilmarnock.
This Dundee side, though, don’t know any other way than going for it.
On another day, that pays off with Murray’s late chance thanks to Josh Mulligan’s brilliant set up.
Too often that hasn’t paid off, though.
So what happened?
Dundee were out on their feet late on. The high intensity game that put them in such a great position is hard, hard going and it shows late in matches.
The same happened in the derby win a fortnight ago. A blistering first-half pace just couldn’t be maintained and Dundee United had late chances to equalise.
They obviously didn’t manage that but Rangers have more quality and it paid.
Joe Shaughnessy was struggling after a testing run backwards around 75 minutes, Simon Murray was struggling in the final minutes before having to be taken off, pretty much everyone was knackered. Even Trevor Carson had to stretch out tired legs he was so busy.
Rangers brought on five subs, two of them with 70 international caps between them.
Dundee used two subs, one enforced after 93 minutes.
To get results like this over the line you need substitutes you can rely on to see the game out, fresh legs to come on and be trusted by the manager to see it out.
Docherty doesn’t trust his bench right now and so there are very few options he’s willing to bring on to help his team when they need it most.
That comes down to recruitment and building a balanced squad.
What about tactics?
Tony Docherty started with the 4-3-3 that won at Tannadice before changing to 3-4-3 in response to Rangers switching in the opposite direction.
For much of the second half it worked with Dundee looking pretty comfortable after adding to their lead.
What proved crucial, however, was the space left in front of the Dundee area after the change of system.
One extra man in the backline meant one man less in midfield as Josh Mulligan moved from the centre of the park to right wing-back and Jordan McGhee moved inside to centre-back.
It took a while but eventually Rangers took advantage of that. James Tavernier had too much space on the edge of the area and smashed in an unstoppable shot.
Then Mo Sylla had two men to mark at once and picked the wrong one to leave Tom Lawrence with the chance to fire Rangers level.
🤩 "It's another beauty!"
Tom Lawrence makes it 3-3! 🤯 pic.twitter.com/9wQK6DkYLD
— Sky Sports Scotland (@ScotlandSky) March 29, 2025
It must be said that Rangers created a load of chances against the back four as well as against the back three. And leaving things as they were after Rangers changed system would have been a risk in itself.
But in the crucial moments, that extra space left in midfield proved a big reason why Dundee allowed the Gers to get level and eventually win.
Next
Dundee are still 11th and desperately need wins.
The good news is this is the last time they will face either of the top two this season.
And this level of performance would surely be enough to see off most teams in the games to come.
Keep up this kind of attacking verve and Dundee will pull themselves away from the bottom.
Continue this kind of defending, though, and they’ll make things a lot harder for themselves.
Sort out the defence and it won’t come down to a half-inch, Dundee will win their way out of trouble with space to spare.
But can they sort out their defence? It’s THE major question Tony Docherty has to answer.
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