You could say Jim McIntyre hasn’t enjoyed much of a honeymoon as Dundee boss.
Instead of celebrating a marriage made in heaven and looking forward to a new, exciting life at Dens Park, he has had to witness two terrible defeats.
There was certainly no happy home debut for him as his struggling side were hammered 3-0 by Premiership leaders Hearts.
McIntyre had hoped his players would dig deep and somehow salvage some of their battered pride following Saturday’s shocking four-goal loss at Livingston.
Instead of a heroic battle from the bottom-placed side, though, it was the same old story for the Dark Blues as they defended badly and failed to cause their opponents any trouble at the other end of the park to make it a minus seven goal difference under McIntyre so far.
Dundee committed the cardinal sin of losing goals almost immediately after the start of each half and even missed a penalty, with Calvin Miller the culprit with the scoreline at 2-0.
It was all too easy for Hearts, whose goals came through Oliver Bozanic, Steven Naismith and Steven MacLean.
It was just not good enough from the Dark Blues and you have to worry for them with Celtic the next to arrive at Dens next Wednesday night.
They had made four changes to the side that was thrashed by Livi.
Out went goalkeeper Elliot Parish, Andy Boyle, Kharl Madianga and Sofien Moussa. They were replaced by Jack Hamilton, Darren O’Dea, Jesse Curran and Elton Ngwatala.
McIntyre had, of course, looked on in despair as they shipped four set-piece goals on Saturday.
Therefore, you can imagine the last thing he said to his men before they left the dressing room was not to concede an early freekick, considering what happened at the Tony Macaroni Arena.
However, that is exactly what they did, with Lewis Spence fouling Harry Cochrane 25 yards from goal.
Up stepped, Bozanic to clip a beautiful left-foot shot over the wall and then inside Hamilton’s left-hand post to make it 1-0 to the visitors after just two minutes.
The hosts were stunned but, on seven minutes, they attacked with real menace through Calvin Miller, who raced up the left before firing a low hot across the face of Zdenek Zlamal’s goal.
The Dens men were two down on 14 minutes as they were cut open by the Jam Tarts down the right.
Michael Smith was allowed to get his ball over and it made it all the way to Steven MacLean, who tried to flick it into the net from close range. The ball didn’t make it that time but Naismith was on hand to poke it home from a yard out.
Dundee had a glorious chance to get back into the match on 22 minutes when they were awarded a penalty after Hearts’ Jimmy Dunne wrestled Benjamin Kallman to the ground.
Referee Craig Thomson immediately pointed to the spot but Calvin Miller wasted the opportunity by pulling his left-foot strike well wide of the keeper’s left-hand post.
Spence nodded a Cammy Kerr cross wide just minutes later as the home team tried to make up for that shocking spotkick miss.
On 38 minutes, though, it was almost three for the Tynecastle men when the woodwork saved Dundee. After what seemed like dozens of passes inside the Dundee box the ball fell to the unmarked MacLean, whose chip from the edge of the area hit the underside of the bar and spun away to safety.
Dundee had another escape in first-half stoppage-time when Naismith beat the offside trap, played a great flick over to MacLean but the former St Johnstone man’s strike was saved by Hamilton.
The home side made it to half-time without suffering further damage but, just 21 seconds after the restart they fell 3-0 behind.
MacLean got what was a thoroughly deserved goal, stabbing the ball over the line from two yards out following a nice lay-off by Callumn Morrison just as home goalie Hamilton tried to close him down.
It was yet another terrible one to lose as Dundee’s defending deserted them.
McIntyre made his second substitution of the night – Madianga was already on for Spence – when he replaced Ngwatala with Roarie Deacon on 52 minutes.
However, it was all about Hearts as they were roared forward by their 1,900-strong travelling support.
With 61 minutes on the clock, Djoum raced upfield and his strike was deflected just over the bar.
Just to run it in to the home supporters, former Dundee fans’ favourite Craig Wighton came on for the Jam Tarts on 71 minutes and Hamilton had to save his shot just minutes later.
Dundee sub Roarie Deacon tried to grab a consolation four minutes from the end with a shot that was well saved by Zlamal, while the Hearts goalie also pushed away a strike from Curran in injury-time.
It was a flurry of attacking play by the home team but way too little too late.
Attendance: 6,112.
Dundee: Hamilton, Kerr, O’Dea, Kamara, Ngwatala (Deacon 52), Inniss, C. Miller, Kallman, K. Miller, Curran, Spence (Madianga 46). Subs not used: Parish, Mendy, Nabi, Boyle, Henvey.
Hearts: Zlamal, Smith, Dunne, Bozanic, Djoum, Mitchell (Garuccio 73), Naismith (Wighton 71), MacLean, Cochrane (Lee 77), Dikamona, Morrison. Subs not used: Doyle, Clare, Hughes, Mulraney.
Referee: Craig Thomson.
