Frustration is the word around Dens Park this season.
And it seems like that feeling is never-ending when the weather has another go at the vulnerable pitch on the day of a game.
It’s official, God has decided Dundee versus Ayr United will never be played.
Just wait until the new date (the fifth one) of Tuesday, March 16, and we’ll see some freak tornado sweep off the Bobby Cox and tear up the grass.
Seriously, though, last night was a major missed opportunity for Dundee to put that awful performance against Queen of the South behind them quickly.
It sums up the season at Dens Park when the only day forecast for rain this week is game day.
With the Honest Men coming to town, it was shaping up to be a season-defining match for the Dee and manager James McPake.
Lose and they could have dropped to seventh in the Championship table after 15 games.
With that squad of players, games in hand or no, that would be unthinkable.
However, I fully expected the Dark Blues to come away with all three points and with a much-improved display to boot last night.
I felt like the match at the weekend, disappointing as it was, would’ve shaken the rust out of the Dundee players and they’d be determined to sort things out.
Both McPake and captain Charlie Adam rejected rustiness as a reason for their slow start but I can’t see any other conclusion to draw.
It took 45 minutes to shake off the cobwebs and, by then, Queens were already 2-0 up.
To be fair to Dundee, on another day they could have won that game 5-2 in the second half with the chances they created.
And that’s why I fancied them to put things right against Ayr.
I’ve thought a number of times this term that a team would be on the wrong end of a doing against Dundee but it’s just not materialised so far.
And time is running out for them to finally show their true quality.
The players and management will all have been frustrated by the denial of that chance to redeem themselves yesterday.
For Dees, they’ll just have to hope they can bottle up that feeling and unleash it at Morton on Saturday.
Because that won’t be an easy trip.
Ton haven’t been in good form of late but took an impressive point from Tynecastle last time out, only the second team to come away with anything from Hearts.
And they are another team just a little bit behind Dundee in the table.
A win is required for the Dark Blues and then another on Tuesday against Inverness.
The beauty of their next few weeks is they’ll have no time to think, get a positive result and they can roll onto the next game just a couple of days later.
This is a chance for Dundee to sort out their season.
They don’t want to be heading to Hearts next weekend still flailing about in mid-table.
Rangers defeat won’t dampen the mood at Tannadice
I very much doubt the 4-1 defeat at Rangers will have dampened the mood around Tannadice right now.
Recent wins over Ross County and Livingston and the manner of the performances should mean that it’ll take more than one defeat to rattle the confidence at Dundee United.
Particularly when even at Ibrox they were creating chances.
And became only the second team in the league to score there all season.
I mean, that is a frightening home record.
When you are up against that, you can’t go in expecting to get anything.
So, while you don’t like to lose, it wasn’t such a massive surprise to see the Gers grab all three points.
A plus point, though, will be Marc McNulty getting on the scoresheet for the first time since the December win over Kilmarnock.
That’s a nice wee omen ahead of the trip to Rugby Park.
And that’s why things are looking brighter at United right now, they are looking much more of an attacking threat than they have for pretty much the whole season.
When you have forwards with the quality of Lawrence Shankland, McNulty and Nicky Clark then that can only bode well.
Kilmarnock are struggling and, though they’ve made a good move in securing Tommy Wright in the dugout, are there to be beaten for United.
Very odd now to see crowds at sporting events
It now feels very, very strange watching sporting events with crowds in attendance.
I really enjoyed the tennis at the Australian Open over the last couple of weeks, especially when the atmosphere returned – even if some of the fans got a bit tipsy and started shouting abuse at Rafa Nadal. . .
I even saw a little of England’s cricket match in India where there were loads of locals jumping around and enjoying themselves.
It may be strange for us right now but it shows we aren’t that far away from getting back and shouting at our favourite sports stars.
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