Dundee’s Sofien Moussa gave his boss Neil McCann an early Christmas gift in the shape of his two goals on Saturday to thank him for continuing to show faith in him.
Despite not scoring for three months prior to the game at Dens against Partick Thistle, the big striker took the responsibility to calmly convert his side’s two spot-kicks in a vital 3-0 win over bottom-of-the-table Jags.
After the ball hit the back of the net, Moussa made a point of running to the home dug-out to celebrate with his manager.
The 29-year-old’s joy and relief was palpable as he ended that drought as he knew it something that was causing angst among Dundee fans.
Now, he has promised there will be a lot more goals to come from him – especially as he is now used to defenders in Scotland trying to “kill him”!
Moussa said: “Every time he (McCann) has spoken with me he has told me I have quality and that I work hard for the team – but now I need to score.
“He told me not to think and I will score. I said, ‘OK’. So after my goals I ran to celebrate with him. I have a good relationship with the gaffer. He’s a good man and I gave him a gift of two goals today.
“I am very happy with my two goals. I know the fans have been very angry because strikers need to score goals in every game.
“I heard the fans were angry. I don’t look at Facebook or anything but I heard. My brother tries to tell me if the fans are happy or unhappy with me but I told him not to tell me about it.
“I’ve come here and I am a professional and I accept the critics. I know I need to score goals.
“But I take confidence from my goals. The gaffer told me I work hard for the team but I need to start scoring goals. Scoring today is not enough. I need to keep scoring goals for the team.
“We have a very good team. We can play the top six teams easy. I’ve played against all the teams now and we are a good team. We just need to be confident and have a little bit of luck.”
Moussa added: “This is Scotland! Welcome to Scotland. The gaffer has told me the game is different here. The opposing players kill me!
“But I have learned that I have to kill them back. This is football in this country. I needed a little time.
“I play aggressive a little but that’s my style. If I change it I won’t play a good game. You need to be aggressive and hard in Scotland because the league is hard here.
“But I now feel that I understand this league. Before now, I didn’t understand.”
After Dundee’s midweek defeat against Hearts at Tynecastle, McCann had labelled his side’s performance a joke but the vibrant display on Saturday was certainly no laughing matter for the Jags.
There was plenty of zip about the Dundee play in the first half against a Partick side that barely featured in an attacking sense.
The Dark Blues opened the scoring in the 19th minute with their first penalty of the afternoon when Danny Devine upended Moussa. He dusted himself down before calmly sending Jags keeper Tomas Cerny the wrong way with his spot-kick.
McCann’s men extended their advantage on 35 minutes. Cerny blocked an A-Jay Leitch-Smith shot but Mark O’Hara was on hand to lash home the rebound.
Thistle tried to make a better fist of it in the second half but fell further behind in the 65th minute when the hapless Devine tripped Cammy Kerr in the Partick box with Moussa again sending Cerny the wrong way with his penalty to make it three and easy for the home side.
Moussa admitted that the manager’s stinging verbal volley after the Jambos game had spurred the team on against Partick.
He said: “Of course it motivated us. We didn’t play a good game against Hearts and we spoke about it with the manager. He said he wanted a reaction and make the fans happy. We did that today.”
That manager was naturally delighted with the win and the performance of Moussa although McCann insisted the “big brute” needs more protection.
He said: “It would have been easy to take him out of the side after Tuesday’s defeat against Hearts but I thought his overall performance was fantastic today.
“I don’t think Moussa gets any protection.
“He gets absolutely clattered at times. He then got booked and it was one of the softest I’ve seen. I think it’s because he looks like a big brute.”
