Dundee rounded off their pre-season programme with a fine victory over Blackpool at Dens.
They have had a busy and varied summer schedule, heading from Brechin to Spain and then back home for this friendly against their English visitors.
The Dark Blues took the honours thanks to a freakish goal on 41 minutes.
Andrew Nelson was the scorer after Blackpool goalie Christopher Mafoumbi’s attempted clearance struck the striker on the body and rebounded into the net.
The Dark Blues had lined up with a back three of Jordan McGhee, skipper Josh Meekings and Jordon Forster. Nelson and Craig Curran were up front.
There was a change in the technical area, with the home dugout now the one closest to the tunnel.
The Dark Blues were the first to attack on four minutes, with Paul McGowan – the most advanced midfielder – sending a shot just wide from outside the box.
The visitors, who were in their traditional tangerine strips, came close on nine minutes when Armand Gnanduiller, who had his back to goal, spun and poked a strike a few inches past.
Dundee goalie Jack Hamilton was almost – but not quite – caught out by a cross-shot from Nathan Delfouneso that tried to sneak inside his near post on 22 minutes before Curtis Tilt headed the resultant corner wide.
Sullay Kaikai woke the match up on 31 minutes when the Blackpool man cut inside then curled a cracker of a shot just over the home bar.
On 41 minutes, the hosts took the lead thanks to a bizarre blunder from Mafoumbi.
The hapless goalie took a passback but was slow to react. He was closed down by Nelson, panicked and then blasted the ball off the Dens striker and it flew into the net from close range.
Jamie Devitt and Kaikai both came close to an equaliser for the English side but they went into the break a goal down.
Fin Robertson replaced Curran for Dundee at the restart, while the opposition made no fewer than 10 substitutions.
As is often the case when it is all change in personnel, the match lost a lot of its fluency.
With an hour gone, the hosts gave runouts to Cammy Kerr and Jordan Marshall in place of McGhee and Shaun Byrne.
On 65 minutes, Blackpool had the ball in the net through Yusfiu Ceesay from close-range but the referee spotted a foul from Ryan Edwards in the build-up.
Declan McDaid ran at the Blackpool defence before pulling his shot wide as the clock ticked past 70 minutes then Matty Virtue of the visitors scooped his shot over the bar from eight yards.
With a quarter-of-an-hour remaining, it was the turn of 16-year-old Lyall Cameron to get his chance for the Dens men as he replaced Ness.
Dundee almost doubled their lead on 83 minutes when McDaid tried to find Nelson with a cross and it didn’t quite fall for Cameron. The loose ball was fired goalwards by Marshall but it was saved on the line.
Sam Fisher, Michael Cunningham and Josh Mulligan got the last few minutes of game time as the match was closed out by the Dark Blues.
Attendance: 2,405.
Dundee: Hamilton, McGhee (Kerr 60), Ness (Cameron 75), Forster (Fisher 85), Meekings, Todd, Byrne (Marshall 60), Nelson (Mulligan 85), McGowan, McDaid (Cunningham 85), Curran (Robertson 46). Subs not used: Ferrie, Strachan, Anderson.
Blackpool: Mafoumbi, Devitt, Delfouneso, Spearing, Kaikai, Feeney, Thompson, Tilt, Gnanduiller, Nottingham, Shaw. Second half subs: Howard, Edwards, Bola, Yussuf, Tollitt, Guy, Pritchard, Virtue, Anderton, Ceesay, Jaaskelainen.
Referee: Craig Napier.
